When Casey Roberts died this week, she was dressed in a t-shirt that said, "This is what awesome looks like." It’s a perfect fit.

Casey and I met way back in 1995, as students in Interfaith Seminary. To manage the workload, five of us formed a study group we call the Merry Ministers. We became sisters collaborating on reading/writing/study/self exploration/laughter/tears/life. We were born in different decades, lived in different parts of the Northeast, and grew up with different religions and philosophies. What unites us is love, our need to serve, our zest for life and our belief in "many paths, one destination."

Casey is a master of clarity. It was one of her missions in life. And few of us are as clear and articulate about our values as she was. She wrote and sang about them, but more importantly, she lived and challenged them with awesome grace and fervor.

Here, in Casey’s own poetic words, are those values.

TO CHILDREN YET UNBORN

My dear ones, you are the future. You are our dreams.  You are our hopes. All that comes will pass before you. The world I know now will fade and become your world, your hopes, and your memories.

But in these days before we meet, before our worlds come together and the torch is passed to you, indulge me just a few moments so I may share my hopes for you and for the future that you bring.

May you always know love, and forever feast upon the joys of love extended.

May you never forget who you are, and waste not one precious moment trying to figure out that which you already know.

May you have the courage to follow what is true to you; never letting anyone steer you from your course.

And may your actions always be guided by your honor;  especially when the right thing to do seems the hardest thing to do.

Little ones, your precious gift of life is yours to do with as you will. No one can chart your course for you. But after you’ve burst upon this waiting, breathless and strange new world, remember the words of one you’ve not yet met:

All the joys that await you will be those that you give to others.

* * *

That's our Casey. Awesome.