It took my being sick to realize how quickly everything can be taken away. A healthy man wants a thousand things, and a sick man just wants one.

• Gwern talks about how you could survive (shelter, food, water) with just $1000 and collecting 36 cans a day. That makes me appreciative of the things I have. I'm grateful that...
• sleep comes without complications and wake without question
• my limbs work and my heart pumps
• I can get up, walk, jump, exercise, travel
• I can see and interact with the world in myriad ways

These are all things we take for granted so often, but I think it's already a wondrous life. The rest is surfeit.

And a final note to self:

It is a luxury to complain about the miniscule: deadlines, grades, missing a train, getting caught in the rain.