It is true. You do not appreciate what you have until it is no more. Or, in my case, you are about to lose what you had so taken for granted: your life.
By my reckoning, confronting one's mortality is not for the faint-hearted.
For me, it was the perceived surety of terra firma to hovering mid-air above a deep, blue-black abyss. Bereft of control. No safety net to catch me if I fall. Nothing but a stubborn refusal to look down and a fierce focus to move with unfaltering focus towards landfall. To start over, but this time to live life on purpose.
And so from a hospital bed, a promise is made to the heavens above: 'You have my word. I'll not let you down.'