And life is a journey...

Passage from a Reform Jewish Prayer Book, as quoted by Priscilla Warner, in The Faith Club.
.

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 offense to forgiveness,
From loneliness to love,
From joy to gratitude,
From pain to compassion,
And grief to understanding--
. From fear to faith;
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.