| Birth is a beginning and death a
destination. And life is a journey: From childhood to maturity and youth to age; From innocence to awareness and ignorance to knowing; From foolishness to discretion and then, perhaps, to wisdom; From weakness to strength or strength to weakness. And, often, back again; From health to sickness and back, we pray, to health again; From offence to forgiveness, from loneliness to love, From joy to gratitude, from pain to compassion, From grief to understanding - from fear to faith; From defeat to defeat to defeat - until, looking backwards or ahead, We see that victory lies not at some high place along the way, But in having made the journey, stage by stage, a sacred pilgrimage. Birth is a beginning and death a destination. And life is a journey, a sacred pilgrimage - to life everlasting. Author Rabbi Alvin Fine |