You can travel all over the world, but the greatest journey you will every take will be inside yourself. The autobiographical book “Learning to Breathe” is an inspiring story of injury and recovery by renowned photojournalist Alison Wright.
Since she was in her early twenties, Wright has devoted her life to traveling the world, experiencing and documenting endangered cultures.
Barely ever seeing her apartment in San Francisco, she journeyed all around the world with her camera, living a daring life of constant adventure until a nearly-fatal accident changed her forever. One day, while traveling through Southeast Asia, her bus was hit by a logging truck. Wright broke her ribs and back. Her arms were severely lacerated, her lungs collapsed and the rest of her internal organs were ripped apart. Stranded on a remote mountain road in Laos, she did not receive any real medical care for 14 hours.
Once back in the United States, Wright endured several months of painful surgeries and various forms of physical therapy to repair her damaged body. All her doctors agreed that she should not have survived. Now, slowly and agonizingly working her way back to health, she is left to discover why she lived.
Wright opens her soul in this book, which chronicles both her breathtaking and heartbreaking experiences before, during and after the accident that nearly killed her. Looking back on the life she had and wondering if she can ever have it back, she discovers wisdom deeply entrenched in Buddhist beliefs that can inspire us all in times of struggle.
Only through the trying experiences in our lives do we learn what living is. Wright’s physical and spiritual journey leads her to a realization of the interconnection between human beings. After a several year recovery process, Wright returns to Laos to thank the people that saved her life: the young man who sewed her arm up with needle and thread to keep her from bleeding to death, the doctor that literally held her heart in his hands and the many other friends and monks who prayed for months for her recovery.
This story is a testament to the strength and endurance of the human body and, more importantly, the spirit. No matter how we live our lives or what we believe in, we can take peace from stories like this one: stories that inspire us to learn, to be strong, to hope and always to love.
