On Death. Kahlil Gibran.

You would know the secret of death, but how shall you find it,
unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night bound eyes are blind into the day,
cannot unveil the mystery of light.
It would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart
wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depths of your hopes and desires, lies your silent
knowledge of the beyond; and like seeds dreaming beneath
the snow, your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd.
when he stands before the king,whose hand is to be laid
upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall
wear the mark of the king? yet is he not more mindful of his trembling.

For what is it to die, but to stand naked in the wind, and to melt
into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the
breath, from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand
and seek God unemcumbered.

Only when you drink from the river of silence, shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.