Leaving you time to make your way

Through the cold embrace of fear

To the place of inner tranquillity.

May death arrive only after a long life

To find you at home among your own

With every comfort and care you require.

May your leave-taking be gracious,

Enabling you to hold dignity

Through awkwardness and illness.

May you see the reflection

Of your life’s kindness and beauty

In all the tears that fall for you.

As your eyes focus on each face,

May your soul take its imprint,

Drawing each image within

As companions for the journey.

May you find for each one you love

A different locket of jeweled words

To be worn around the heart

To warm your absence.

May someone who knows and loves

The complex village of your heart

Be there to echo you back to yourself

And create a sure word-raft

To carry you to the further shore.

May your spirit feel

The surge of true delight

When the veil of the visible

Is raised, and you glimpse again

The living faces

Of departed family and friends

May there be some beautiful surprise

Waiting for you inside death,

Something you never knew or felt

Which with one simple touch,

Absolves you of all loneliness and loss,

As you quicken within the embrace

For which your soul was eternally made.

May your heart be speechless

At the sight of the truth

Of all belief had hoped,

Your heart breathless

In the light and the lightness

Where each and everything

Is at last its true self'