The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying

by Nina Riggs

The beautiful, vibrant, living world goes on.

We are certain only that there is so much of which we are not certain.

Some things are meant to return to us again and again.

Cancer removes whatever weird barriers we sometimes have with others. A mastectomy of bullshit, my mother suggests. All the oh-yes-everything-is-great stuff eventually gets carted off in a bag of medical waste.

Emerson felt that nature was the closest we can get to experiencing God, and he believed that in order to truly appreciate nature, you must not only look at it and admire it, but also be able to feel it taking over the senses.

“These days are days,” I say, calm and furious. “We choose how we hold them.

what he is working toward in his difficult exploration is unquestionably beautiful: how to distill what matters most to each of us in life in order to navigate our way toward the edge of it in a meaningful and satisfying way.

how to figure out what makes a person’s life worth living in order to make the most sensible choices as the end of life approaches.

Sometimes the most important thing is knowing when to quit. Sometimes being heroic is knowing when to say enough is enough.

RWE’s “own attitude in the matter was, that it was only a question for each person where the best church was,—in the solitary wood, the chamber, the talk with the serious friend, or in hearing the preacher.”