September 7, 2007

if

if you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
but make allowance for their doubting too,
if you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
or being hated, don't give way to hating,
and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

if you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
if you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
if you can meet with triumph and disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same;
if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:

if you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
and lose, and start again at your beginnings
and never breath a word about your loss;
if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the will which says to them: "hold on!"

if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
if all men count with you, but none too much,
if you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
and--which is more--you'll be a man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

6 comments:

Mama Squirrel said...

For your mom, Beatrice:

"if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the will which says to them: "hold on!""

Continued prayers from the Treehouse.

Pipsqueak said...

I love that poem, Fa.

Donna-Jean Breckenridge said...

Ridyard Kipling is our poet this term - and this will be our first poem. Thanks for posting it.

Blessings, prayers, and thoughts to you and yours this day...and the days to come.

Javamom said...

Beatrice,

Great choice of poem. We love this one at the Booksnkaffeehaus. It is the first page of The Blessing Book I made and bound for Jonathan's graduation.

Javamom

Beck's Bounty said...

Many many (or probably MOST) mornings I asked more than a few of these IF questions ... and that is just "before" my feet hit the floor.

May God Bless You & Your Family.
MomToCherubs
http://www.becksbounty.blogspot.com

Dani said...

Always good to read that.

Still praying for your family! Hope all is getting better and better. I know the Lord is there.