Ellen Goodman–a fine newspaper columnist of old who wrote a piece on being alive at the age Mozart was dead already–which provided a lot of perspective re. making hay while the sun shines, and
poet Jane Kenyon whose poem “Otherwise” guides my life daily, knowing that whatever I am doing or have plans to do on a given day could have been, might have been, and will definitely be “otherwise” some day with a great deal of fact and certitude.
These two views have been long-standing ‘wake-up calls’ to not waste a minute of precious time-limited life and to fully appreciate whatever pleasure, enjoyment, beauty, etc. I receive or am able to bestow on others.