NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNINGS

Here's a beautiful poem for the new year.

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 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.

--- Rabbi Alvin I. Fine
from Gates of Repentance, p. 283

Happy New Year to all of you!