I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Up to a certain point, it is necessary for a man to live his life in the world in which he finds himself, and to make the best of it. But beyond that point, he must create a world of his own. And the greatest thing about life is that it is always giving us the opportunity to create something new. It is never too late to start over, to make a fresh beginning, to blaze a new trail.

Life is short, and we have but a brief time in which to explore, to learn, to experience, and to create. Let us make the most of that time, and let us burn brightly, like meteors across the night sky, leaving behind us a trail of light and inspiration for those who come after us. ~Jack London

What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing: you wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought. I am constantly preoccupied with how to remove distance so that we can all come closer together, so that we can all begin to sense that we are the same, we are one. ~ David Hockney

What is it that we want? To fully experience our aliveness. To feel in our bodies a streaming, like the rush of a river over stones. To be awake, alert, and responsive in our limbs and sensitive in our fingertips to the textures we touch; to be infused with our own whispering current of wind; to feel as if our outer and inner reality is congruent and that our efforts are rewarded by a sense of satisfaction. We carve out our own identity and possess our own purpose, and yet we also yearn to shed the isolation we feel within the envelope of our skin. We desire union. We aspire to have our private lives nestle within the valley of a public world that we can affirm. We long to feel connected with each other. Like the woods that harbor wild creatures, creekbeds, and fertile pastures that rest upon a mound of earth that spreads into a vast range of mountains and plains-we want to feel a part of a community that spills into and becomes part of a larger universe. We want to be able to embrace and be embraced. We want to live the life of our bodies and want our bodies to permit us to fully live our lives. ~ Harriet Beinfeld, Between Heaven and Earth - A guide to Chinese Medicine