Poem: "If" by Rudyard Kipling

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 allowances 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 look 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 imposters 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 for broken

And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss

And lose, and start again at the beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are done

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 forty 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.

This poem has become interesting to me. I am going through applying and comparing this to the learning that I have done prior to hearing this poem. I may have save myself some trouble if this poen had been handed to me when I was younger, and perhaps if there was someone to show me how this is done, If that were all true, I might have a unicorn and pet dragon, and maybe I could have learned these lessons prior to now. Maybe even with some intentionality about how the actions of others are affecting me. This becomes important when I am raising my children. They won't be treated the way I was treated. I got lucky that I was able to come out of it, some people never do. I got lucky to have the wake up call that left me healthy enough to walk away and learn a little more.