And to my other friend Steve, who as far as I know does not do yoga, happy birthday! Here is a Rilke poem that I've always liked, translated by Robert Bly. The last line reminds me of something I read recently -- "As death is inevitable for the living, so birth is inevitable for the dead."

I find you in all these things of the world

that I love calmly, like a brother;

in things no one cares for you brood like a seed;

and to powerful things you give an immense power.

Strength plays such a marvelous game --

it moves through the things of the world like a servant,

groping out in roots, tapering in trunks,

and in the treetops like a rising from the dead.