The morning before he died in the final year of his seventies, he drafted a poem containing these lines:
You can’t tell when strange things with meaning... See more
will happen. I’m [still] here writing it down
just the way it was. “You don’t have to
prove anything,” my mother said. “Just be ready
for what God sends.” I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again.
Maria Popova • Yes: William Stafford’s Poetic Calibration of Perspective
To be able to summon some sort of wonder and gratitude for the fact you got to live and die is the highest calling. It is the best way to go through life—it beats almost any other model of thinking I’ve ever encountered.
Joe Fassler • Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process
“I have tried to live my life such that in the hour of my death I would feel joy rather than fear.”