I am glad to be here today among all of you Craig found so important in his life. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak as his friend on this day. I also feel the burden and the sorrow of all who must go on with our lives tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I hope I can bring out some of the spirit of love in the room, and give some voice to what so many are feeling.

Craig was my friend and I will miss him forever I aIso know that I will always carry a piece of his heart in mine, and draw on the strength of his willing smile and fearless direct approach to people. He cut through all the philosophy and always had in stock a few simple words of wisdom and acceptance. They still serve me well: "Stuff Happens."

I will not revise his life. We have all injured, and been injured in the course of learning our lives and our selves. We have all struggled to find love, and to know we are loved. We have all forgiven and needed to be forgiven, sometimes more than we could ask.

Craig took pleasure in the strength of his body, competition and sports. He loved to play, and to win, but as a sore Ioser myself, I don't recall feeling that way with Craig. He loved the game more than the vlctory, and the companionship in play far beyond winning.

I remember walking with Craig, years ago, throwing rocks in the River, watching the ripples run down stream while silence flowed long between the words we spoke. We all know that he ran deeper than the surface he preferred to show. For all of his brash self confidence, I know he loved deeply. I also know that he did not always know how to express that love to those he loved the most.

Craig was passionate with his feelings, and sometimes quick to anger, and long in regrets. Regrets he seldnm knew how to express. Hurt himself over the injury he knew he caused, but to uncertain of himself to reach out easily.

I knew Craig as a friend who demanded a smile from me, and got it, when I could not find it in my own heart. He was at his best for Grand old Days, and the Turtle Back Classic. He opened his days to all of us for laughter and a smile. For all of his wanderings, I know he was deeply anchored in this city, the streets he grew up on, by his fnends, his memories, and his love for the people around him.

Craig was a husband, and a father before most of us could think of ourselves accepting that responsibility. I know how deeply he loved, and how much he wanted to be the best father that life had not allowed him.

If I could speak for him now it would be to remember the words of love that I know, that all of these gathered friends know, were in his heart. I wish I could give to Kimberly, Zoey and Max the gift of knowing the depth of feeling I know that Craig had for them, but may not always have been able to express. One hour, one day, cannot be enough for that, nor one friend alone equal to that task. Fortunately I am not alone. Gathered here are many, many friends, all of whom knew Craig, and who will carry his memory and his love in their hearts. Today, and beyond today, you need to know that each of us is here for you, in the spirit of that love and the love we will all miss so much.

We have been told that, like a chain, we are as weak as the weakest link. This is but half the truth, for we are also as strong as the strongest link. To measure a life by its smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of it's foam. To judge ourselves by our failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.

Each of us knows in our hearts that we are more than the flesh enclosed by our bodies. We are that which dwells above the mountains, roves with the wind, and finds comfort in the warmth of the sun. We are the spirit that envelops the earth, moves in the ether, and yields to the wind.

The wind bids us leave yield in our time. Less hasty are we than the wind, and yet we must go. We wanderers, ever seeking the lonelier way, begin no day where we have ended another day; and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us. Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of a tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and we are scattered.

What Craig gave to us through his life each of us will hold forever in our hearts. Brief were his days among us, and briefer still were the words he spoke, but as his voice fades in our ears, our memory of love will grow, and with a richer heart and more yielding spirit will we know his heart (our hearts).

Craig goes with the wind today, but not into emptiness. Thls day will not fulfill our needs, nor all our need for love, understanding or peace. Let it be a promise till another day. Our needs change, but not our love, nor our desire that our love should satisfy all needs.

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the sun and to melt away into the wind. What is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides that it may rise on the wind, expand and seek god unencumbered.

The wind is done waiting for Craig's return. We are less hasty than the wind, but must let go. Let us each surrender to this wind, and let it carry off our injury, our confusion, our anger and our loss.

- Morgan