I am now face to face with dying, but I am not finished with living. – Oliver Sacks
Writer Oliver Sacks, stricken with a terminal illness in his eighties, spent the last two years of his life writing about sickness while coming to terms with his impending death. The book is not a morbid read on suffering and death. Rather, Sacks’ essays focus on living with an intense appreciation of life. The book is a brief and hopeful spiritual meditation on gratitude.
Sacks articulates his intention on living life to the fullest, as well as his awareness of gratitude in the following two quotes from the book.
Intention
“Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life. On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.” – Oliver Sacks (p. 18)
Awareness
“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” – Oliver Sacks (p. 20)
I also appreciate Sacks’ reflection the meaning of the Sabbath. Sabbath is about:
- Improving one’s quality of life (p. 41)
- Achieving a sense of peace within oneself
- The seventh day of one’s life work (p. 45)
Gratitude covers the landscape of profound connection and intense living. We are challenged to embrace the adventure of living with the perspective of gratitude.
Go forward into the day.
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