"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 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 'em 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 your 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 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!
Musings Of A Mountain Mama 