Quotes from Lee Gutkind

Regret is my compass. I am an alchemist, trained in the transmutation of my nervous system. I have installed trained guides beside me. I am saving at least one life." "I keep writing. I must. Over and over and over. The same story a million ways.

Miracles aren't always awe inspiring. They aren't always beautiful and obvious. Sometimes they're sticky and gross. Sometimes they're painful and full of loss. Sometimes you'll miss them if you blink. My eyes are wide open today.

Panic, as I said before, is the most contagious of all sicknesses.

this: what matters is not how we die but rather why we choose to live.

Medication cannot cure you of depression. Like a seatbelt, it can save your life—but a seatbelt never brought joy to anyone's heart. A seatbelt never put a skip in a step.

Carl Jung: "Life is an experiment in consciousness that most people fail.

I have a lifetime of learning ahead of me. I apply many of the things I learned in school, but I've forgotten most. Random snippets of the rules come back to me, at times, but my mind will eventually eradicate them all, relearn them, and reinvent them.

I am learning how to let my yes be yes and my no mean no without the need to justify why I choose to say either.

almost all people who hurt themselves on purpose do so at least in part to regulate their emotions.

elders need better choices for living out their lives with assistance and dignity.

Eden Alternative and the Green House Project

Embalming fluid is highly carcinogenic

We use enough metal in caskets and underground vaults that we could rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge every January. The embalming fluid they pumped into my grandfather causes a higher incidence of leukemia and brain and colon cancer in funeral directors. The waste from the dead, along with embalming fluids, is pumped into the sewer, draining straight off the embalming table and down the drain, accompanied by the bleach that's used to disinfect the body.

The other night, the cats were howling. I turned over and convinced myself to go back to sleep because they weren't my patients.

Genetics or brain chemistry, trauma or karma? It doesn't really matter what it's called—after all, no one really knows for sure what causes this affliction—except that it ends. Can I stop doing this? Am I even able? The bees trapped inside my body buzz and whir, needling my nerve endings with delicate stings.

I've learned that even people with mental illness have stigmas about mental illness.

People go to a hospital to get fixed up and then return home. But people generally go to a nursing home fully expecting to get worse and die

some houses have life—are home, are dwellings—and others don't. Dwelling is an old-fashioned word we've misplaced. When we live heart and soul, we dwell. When we belong

Life can only be understood backward; but it must be lived forwards. —Søren Kierkegaard

The nature of things dictates that we must leave those dear to us. Everything born contains its own cessation

Kristen Murphy

When a life ebbs away, it is peaceful and painless.

Marcin Chwistek is a physician who specializes in cancer pain management and palliative care.

I am a writer and editor with a passion for true storytelling. To me, science matters, research matters and knowledge matters, whatever the field.