What I'd say at a funeral (from an old poem I wrote)

Your eyes flutter - not open, but closed - as you try to blink back the tears, but give up. You cry for another beautiful pair that could not close themselves for the last time. But let dry your eyes for the singular hope that there is a heavenly realm, and let soar your heart for that beautiful pair that elsewhere has opened, better and brighter than ever before. Lift up your chin, that your face might catch the sun that rises on this morning - a morning made for those in mourning.

Congratulations

Congratulations, from me to all you friends of mine, for having finished this leg of your journey. I yell from a vast distance behind you, hoping my words will be carried on the wind, through your ears, and into your hearts - so that your legs are strengthened for the journey ahead.

Yet half of me hopes you won't hear this, because I don't want you to look back over your shoulders. You would see me in a shameful state, unable to be fully happy for all of you because of the selfish me that sees in you what I could have been.

At the same time, it makes my congratulations all the more significant, in light of the fact that I wouldn't have offered them at all, some time ago. Where before there was no room in my heart for any of you, there is now some.

I'm sorry that I am so selfish. I don't mean to make this about me. I'm sorry that I've been unable to look past my own circumstances to take joy in your successes. I'll come around completely, eventually - I promise. But for now, I entreat you to accept this pittance of praise. Once again, congratulations, Class of 2010.