Birth is a beginning
And death is a destination.
And life is a journey
from childhood to maturity.
And youth to age;
From innocence 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,
And grief to understanding -
From fear to faith;
And from defeat to defeat to defeat -
Until, looking backward 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.