Gerbil, Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627)
That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary … life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.
George Eliot
‘Middlemarch’
Secret Gardener 
We all would do well to reflect on these words……and not take life for granted.