Gratitude: Oliver Sacks

by Oliver Sacks

I often feel that life is about to begin, only to realize it is almost over.

I have retained this feeling of being the youngest, even though now I am almost the oldest person I know.

“It is difficult,” he wrote, “to be more detached from life than I am at present.”

When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.

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;

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.

one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest.