English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters

Dear colleagues,
I’m not sure about the meaning of the sentence “to honor the thresholds of sunrise and sunset as the bookends of a precious life” taken from the passage below included in the Acknowedgements section of a book.
I’ve asked a question to my Italian colleagues, but there seems to be two distinct interpretations: some say that “bookends” might mean the beginning and end of life; others suppose it might refer to the beginning and end of each day of our life.
My doubt about the former interpretation (birth and death) derives from the use of the verb “honor”: why honor the death, also? A possible explanation is that John O’Donohue was also a Catholic priest: so maybe, death in Catholicism is not the end of everything and you can honor it, too, but I’m not sure this would be the right interpretation.
Thank you so much for your help and patience!

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At home, as well as at work, my wife is a constant reminder by example of how to live fully in the present moment and to consider each day, as our dear family friend, poet, and philosopher John O’Donohue would say, as a mystical gift – *** to honor the thresholds of sunrise and sunset as the bookends of a precious life *** for which we can be deeply grateful.