Quotes: Rebecca Solnit

"A major illness or injury is a rupture that invites you to rethink, to restart, to review what matters. It's a reminder that your time is finite and not to be wasted, and in breaking you from the past it offers the possibility of starting fresh."

–– Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), American author 

Source: Rebecca Solnit. The Faraway Nearby. New York: Viking, 2013; p. 137-8. 

via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 79. 

Quotes: Wrenn Slocum

"I believe so strongly in making conscious decisions about how to spend our finite lives. Maybe it comes from the years I worked in hospital intensive care units. On the night shift I often had the privilege of listening as people faced their approaching death. No one ever expressed regret about not spending enough time at the office, keeping their shower grout cleaner or watching more television." 

–– Wrenn Slocum, fibre artist 

Source: Complex Cloth email conversation between textile artists Wrenn Slocum and Barbara Tate 

via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001.