“Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“At home in bed a few weeks before he died, I asked him, “Can you breathe okay with my head on your chest like this?” His answer was “It’s the only way I know how to breathe.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“I was neither angry nor scared. It simply was.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
“Why? Because I could. Because that’s who I was. Because I would have to learn to live in a different way, seeing death as an imposing itinerant visitor but knowing that even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I am still living.”
― When Breath Becomes Air
― When Breath Becomes Air
Missy’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Missy’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Missy
Lists liked by Missy























