My friend Ato Aful shared this poem with us today and I just felt it to be so special that it has made its way to my blog. Quite fitting for the way that I have been feeling as the year draws to a close. I have had many revelations of love, life and general spiritual enlightenment this year and I am happy that I have made it through what I would say is an unexpectedly difficult year. I love the people around me and the energy that they bring into my life. We should never forget to stand alone in our beings, for we die alone at the end of the day and that is a reality that most of us are unwilling to face, daily. I choose perseverance... It is the substance of my soul.

 

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 'em 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 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!

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

 

 

Bisous,

Khaleesi of THE *UNIVERSE*...
 

P.S. Perseverance in passion is the key to living a great life...

Happy Holidays mes amis, mi amigas, di tsala tsaka, filos mou, my friends and all those who go above and beyond to wake up and face the break of a new dawn.