The most beautiful people 

we have known 

are those who have 

known defeat, 

known suffering, 

known struggle, 

known loss, 

and have found their way out of those depths

People are like stained-glass windows. 

They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, 

but when the darkness sets in, 

their true beauty is revealed 

only if there is a light from within.

Those who have the strength and the love 

to sit with a dying patient 

in the silence that goes beyond words 

will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, 

but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. 

Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive — 

to release our inner selves from the spiritual death 

that comes with living behind a facade 

designed to conform to external definitions 

of who and what we are.