Fitness instructors, you may have noticed, are always nattering on about breathing: “Breathe through the nose,” “Control the breath,” “Push up on the exhale.” There’s a reason for that.

Inhale, lift; exhale, settle. With nothing to focus on ... And when she wouldn’t budge, how he had resorted to using the three of us to gang up on her. She said that when I was a toddler ...