Intelligent Writings
'IF' by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Perhaps now, more than ever Rudyard Kipling's poem, 'IF' is needed for inspiration, contemplation, motivation, and rules to live life by. The wisdom he writes, lets people know you have the power within you to control your destiny. Being a victim is a choice. Here it is to remind people, 'IF'.
'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!
'There is a Hole in My Sidewalk'
By Portia Nelson (1920-2001)
Deep truth about responsibility
'I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I cannot believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault. I get out immediately.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
I walk down another street.'
FEAR
False Evidence Appearing Real
Don't let it defeat you.
'Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.' ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
'The Enemy is Fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear.' -Gandhi
25'Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.
27 'And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life?'
34' Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow,' -Jesus (Matthew 6:25,27,34)
'It's the lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself.' Muhammad Ali
'Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.' - Dale Carnegie
'You cannot win the war against the world if you can't win the war against your own mind.' -Will Smith
'We suffer more in imagination than in reality.' -Seneca
Our Deepest Fear
By Marianne Williamson in 'A Return to Love' 1992
"Fear is an illusion. Our craziness, paranoia, anxiety, and trauma are literally all imagined..."