The Good Stuff: An octogenarian stays connected, a diabetic pilot returns to the skies and a baby emu wobbles

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PHEW! Ever feel like a week whizzes by so fast you haven’t had a chance to exhale? It may be just be a symptom of pandemic life, or perhaps I’m just extra antsy. In any case, I’ve been recommended a trick called the 4-7-8 breathing technique, considered a simple (and free) way to release some weekday tension. Here’s how it works:

To start, breathe in through your nose, mouth closed, for four seconds.

Then, hold that breath for seven seconds. Focus on it. Isn’t it odd to think so hard about breathing?

When seven seconds is up, release that breath, slowly through your mouth, over eight seconds. Let every bit of breath escape in that time.

University of Michigan Medicine recommends you repeat the technique up to seven times, or until you feel relaxed. It’s best performed in the supine position, eyes closed, in a cool, dark room. And by the end of your breathing repetitions, you may find those fried circuits in your head have repaired themselves.

Our favorites this week

A pandemic-proof friendship

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s not sick of Zoom hangouts at this point in the pandemic — but then you wouldn’t know Robert Brajer and Ben Goldstein. Goldstein is a 30-year-old volunteer for DOROT, a non-profit that pairs senior New Yorkers with younger companions — his senior is Brajer, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor and recent widower. The two used to meet regularly to discuss live music over bagels and lox until the coronavirus hit New York. The pandemic can’t stifle their budding friendship, though. They now meet over Zoom to discuss their goings-on and what’s going on with Goldstein’s increasingly long locks. CNN sat in on the pair’s video call, and what followed was a lively and heartwarming reunion between two isolation-weary friends. While they prefer to discuss politics and pop culture over a deli breakfast, they’re committed to fostering their friendship virtually until it’s safe for them to reunite. “It’s a good feeling,” Brajer said of his friendship with Goldstein. “You don’t feel alone.”

‘Lasagna Lady’ delivers delicious charity

With a little grit and a heaping hunk of cheese, Michelle Brenner has done the impasta-ble (sorry for that) by cooking up nearly 1,300 pans of lasagna for friends, first responders or whoever’s hungry during the pandemic — and for free, no less! Brenner was furloughed from her job a few months ago and picked up some work on Instacart. She only spent two days working for the grocery delivery app but it gave her the idea for her now-signature dish — all of her customers ordered frozen lasagna. But frozen lasagna would not stand with Brenner. Over the last 90 days, Brenner has spent up to 14 hours in the kitchen, churning out homemade lasagna after homemade lasagna and offering them for free in her front yard, now a contactless food pantry. And while she doesn’t charge for her meals, her neighbors raised more than $23,000 to keep her cooking until her furlough ends. “People say, ‘Are you tired?'” Brenner said. “And I go, ‘You know, I don’t have time to think about that — I have lasagna to make.'” Words to live by!

16 years, two kidneys and a lifelong friendship

When Terri Herrington’s husband, Bryan, died 16 years ago, his organs saved four other people. Jeff Granger was one of them. He got Bryan’s kidney and pancreas and quickly gained a friend in Terri, who wasn’t allowed to learn his identity for a year after the transplant. The two have stayed close-knit over the last decade, but their friendship leveled up last year, when one of Granger’s kidneys started to fail. Without a second thought, Herrington offered him one of her own. She promised her kidney to him so quick he thought she was joking at first. But one year later, Granger’s got a new kidney, and Herrington’s kidney sits right next to her late husband’s. “We are back together,” she told CNN.

Raise a glass to..

Ashanti Palmer, who’s valedictorian of her high school — oh, and she’s never missed a single day since pre-K. She didn’t take a single sick day! Why’d she do it? It’s simple: “I knew that showing up to school every day was important, because even missing one day can set you back,” she said. Clearly, her perfect attendance paid off as she’s got the highest GPA in her senior class, after all. Since delivering a rousing speech at her virtual graduation, she’s received over $400,000 in scholarships and plans to attend Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. One can only assume she’ll continue her streak of stellar grades and perfect attendance there, too — even if professors aren’t keeping track.

Another shout out is in order for Capt. Bob Halicky, the first pilot with insulin-treated diabetes to lead a commercial flight. Halicky spent much of his life in the air, first as an Air Force pilot, then with Southwest Airlines and the Air National Guard. But in 2011, his type 1 diabetes diagnosis sidelined him from flying. The Federal Aviation Administration used to ban pilots with insulin-treated diabetes from flying for commercial airlines, citing the risk if a pilot’s health failed mid-flight, per the FAA. But it changed its tune last year, and Halicky became one of the first pilots to get his first-class medical certificate he’d need to fly commercially. This week, he returned to Southwest to fly from Las Vegas to Seattle, a trip nearly 10 years in the making. It was as easy as Halicky remembered — plus, he landed 12 minutes early. Before long, he was back in the air for another flight. “I’m super pumped about this,” he said, beaming.

A bright idea

Black-owned businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, but there’s an easy fix to help them bounce back — patronize them! That’s the gist of My Black Receipt, an initiative that encourages customers to share their receipts from Black-owned businesses and ultimately spend $5 million at those businesses from now until July 6. But the goal outlasts summertime. Black upStart, an organization for Black entrepreneurs that started My Black Receipt, says the initiative should lead customers to buy from Black-owned businesses near them in the future, too. “When you invest and purchase from a Black-owned business, what you’re really doing is strengthening the Black community,” said Kezia Williams of Black upStart.

And if you don’t know where the Black-owned businesses are in your area, start with My Black Receipt’s website, which lists more than 6,000 of them to get you started. Plus, the initiative partnered with Yelp to make it even easier to find them — all you’ve got to do is look.

You gotta see this

Sure, this nightmarish eel-like thing looks like the kind of sea creature you feared would wriggle out of your pool drain as a kid. But it’s cool, everyone, this extremely toothy animal is good for the environment. It’s a sea lamprey and it’s earned the unfortunate nickname “vampire fish” for its many, many sharp teeth. But the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department says that sea lamprey are native to the state’s freshwater ecosystem and keep the food chain in balance. Though they feed off the blood of other marine organisms, they’re not thought to harm humans. Still, if you’re taking a dip in Lake Champlain anytime soon, keep your distance or risk waking an aquatic vampire.

Wanna get away?

OK, would you be willing to spend a few months in a grand, 800-year-old Irish castle if you were expected to keep the place running — and you’d be the sole occupant? It’s a trade-off two people made in March, when their manager asked if the two would like to spend their pandemic lockdown at Ashford Castle, now a five-star hotel on the northern shore of Lough Corrib in County Mayo. Now, Laura Jamieson and Michael Smith, castle employees who are also a couple, spend their days traipsing through the wine-tasting tunnel or hosting movie nights in the hotel’s private movie theater. Oh, the horror (they have to vacuum, dust and regularly run showers and toilets to make sure they work, so again, trade-offs!). The two may be evicted when the castle reopens to guests on July 2 — but they’re avoiding the question to keep living their royal fantasy. And we shall live it through them.

Impact your world

Tiny entrepreneur and aspiring jeweler Kamryn Johnson lives near Minneapolis, so she’s acutely aware of the fight for racial justice there that sparked nationwide protests. And at age 9, she’s doing something about it. She and a few of her friends front a friendship bracelet stand — their effort is called “Kamryn & Friends: Bracelets for Unity & Justice.” Their aspirations were modest — they assumed they’d raise maybe $50. But since May 30, the group has raised nearly $100,000 for businesses and food banks in Minneapolis and all because Kamryn wanted to take action. “She has a huge heart and simply wanted to be of help in whatever way she could,” Kamryn’s dad, former NFL player Ron Johnson, told CNN. “She and her friends are finding ways to feed the families of Minneapolis and give back to their community in the way they know how.”

If you want to help like Kamryn but you’re not good at bracelet-making, check out CNN Impact Your World’s guide to help communities get back on their feet amid nationwide protests.

Shameless animal video

There’s always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

The emu is one of the closest animals to a dinosaur on the Earth today. Don’t these striped fuzzballs strike you as ferocious? No? More snuggly, perhaps? Agreed. I’m envious of the dog.