There's a traditional Jewish blessing said after using the bathroom, expressing awe at the complexity of the human body and thanks that we can rely on this system. Atheists and agnostics can search-and-replace God with Nature.

Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, Who formed man with wisdom and created within him many openings and many hollows (cavities). It is obvious and known before Your Throne of Glory that if but one of them were to be ruptured or if one of them were to be blocked it would be impossible to survive and to stand before You (even for a short period of time). Blessed are You, Hashem, Who heals all flesh and acts wondrously.

The Katrina disaster shows how much we have become utterly dependent on manmade systems of wondrous complexity:
* water
* sewer
* electricity
* telecommunications
* natural gas
* gasoline
When these sytems are disrupted as with Katrina our civilization dissolves. This is incentive to give thanks every day for systems that we take for granted and for their maintainers. Every day there is light and water and indoor plumbing and net access is a day to be thankful.

One can extend this analogy by pointing out that all infrastructures need to be maintained on a daily basis, and we need to think into the future about how they might fail. Thus we buy health insurance and floss every day and back up our data and get the oil checked. (Some of us, anyway.)

When we repeatedly notice the wondrous complexity of these systems, we are more likely to take responsibility for them, and less likely to take it for granted that God or somebody will repair any breakdowns. Paradoxically, giving thanks (which is one of many techniques of mindfulness) transfers the creation of the miracle from God to ourselves.

(Cross-posted at Winds of Change)

UPDATE: This email provides a concrete example:

This afternoon, I went to one of the locations where a large group of evacuees were gathered to take home cooked food (they they hadn't had in a week or more), organized by a couple of local churches. This particular group was made up of people who had escaped in their vehicles before the storm hit full force. One woman I talked to said her husband, a power company worker, had stayed there. (He was issued a M16 rifle by the military there, and instructed to shoot looters or anyone threatening him. He told of having witnessed a man stealing medicine from a store, and the military shooting him dead on the spot). She told me he and his fellow power company workers had developed a mysterious rash, and didn't know what to do about it, but it was itchy and irritating. The were working round the clock to move incubated babies from a hospital in desperate shape, to one better situated and couldn't stop.

I went home later and sifted through Katrina stories on the net, and found a reference on the LA Times website about skin eruptions on New Orleans evacuees. Turns out, it's a strain of cholera contracted by having open lesions on the skin come in contact with diseased water or items that had been in the water. It can be fatal if not treated promptly with antibiotics. I called the woman back at her motel room, and told her to insist to her husband that he seek medical attention immediately. The article says the disease is not readily communicated person to person, but those who have it should be identified and given treatment asap.

BTW, I took my laptop down and was able to access the motel's broadband. The evacuees there were extremely grateful to be able to access email, leave messages online, look up the satellite pics of their area and get info on how to go about getting copies of important documents like drivers licenses. One fellow was supposed to get married...but the storm prevented it. He was marrying someone tomorrow, and needed an ID to get the license. One woman needed info on contacting the local school, to see if she could get workbooks so that her kids could keep up with school work. It's mind boggling how many details one has to attend to to keep one's life going in the event of a disaster.

This was a tremendous lesson on the value of being completely prepared for an unforseen calamity: having drivers licenses, SS card #'s, credit card #'s, all essential account information and emergency numbers, etc. One woman told me she lamented not having the foresight to grab her computer and other essentials that would have made life easier to deal with on the run.