“A sense of abundance emerges when we experience the gifts of nature/god and human endeavour. This is often sharpest within a context of external or internal constraint. Something as simple as the taste of the first strawberry is special when nature does not provide strawberries year round. Luxuries all serve this function, but they lose their power and value when they become everyday realities. The experience of abundance encourages us to distribute surplus beyond our circle of responsibility (to the earth and people) in the faith that our needs are provided for. The sense of abundance is lost through addictive indulgence to excess and waste. This excess and waste is only possible through power over nature and people.

A sense of limits comes from a mature understanding of the way the world works. We see that everything in nature, including ourselves, has a limited lifespan and a limited place. The view of our planet from space has given iconic power to the understanding of its material limits. The statistics on the growth in human consumption and numbers and the extinction of species make clear the impossibility of continuous growth in anything. Recognition of limits does not come from the experience of scarcity. Except in extreme famine and other natural disasters, scarcity is a culturally mediated reality; it is largely created by industrial economics and power, rather than actual physical limits to resources. This manufactured scarcity encourages unrestrained consumption and reproduction in the hope they will deliver security…”

— Permaculture, Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren, Abundance and limits of nature

"Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death. But if you look out greedily for all that you could still live, then nothing is great enough for your pleasure, and the smallest things that continue to surround you are no longer a joy. Therefore I behold death, since it teaches me how to live. If you accept death, it is altogether like a frosty night and an anxious misgiving, but a frosty night in a vineyard full of sweet grapes. You will soon take pleasure in your wealth. Death ripens. One needs death to be able to harvest the fruit. Without death, life would be meaningless, since the long-lasting rises again and denies its own meaning. To be, and to enjoy your being, you need death, and limitation enables you to fulfill your being.” — c.g. jung

“i am not suggesting we create a new art of dying to make death somehow perfect. perfection is not a goal of art; it is an ambition of technology and science. arts are improvised out of the limited, imperfect materials at hand. a modern art of dying will not make the end of every life painless, but it can make it bearable, shared, and even in its own way, beautiful.” (unknown)

a beloved teacher once said “it’s funny that we want to know it all! we humans spend so much time wanting to figure it all out, to have all the answers — but you know what? we’ll have all the answers when we’re dead! so Live!”