Gratitude

"Gratitude" is a collection of four essays that Oliver Sacks wrote in the two years leading up to his death in 2015. Each of the four essays in this collection is a gem. The first, written a few days before his eightieth birthday is a meditation on and a celebration of old age which he saw not as a time of life to be grimly endured, but as one that brought its own unique joys with it.

The other three essays were written after he learned that his cancer had returned and that he was nearing the end. This leads him to think about death and reflect on his life, a reflection that leads to a feeling of profound gratitude...

“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 travelled 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.”

Gratitude is a testament to a life lived fully, with a spirit of curiosity and adventure, and a genuine openness to life and experience.