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 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

In this poem, Kipling walks us through some of the ways and means to set aside our small self, the separate self, and live into our True Self, our Image of God Self; the Self that knows her identity as both spirit and flesh: as human - earthling, intelligent life form, homo sapiens, and as conscious Spirit energy of cosmic proportion. It is true, living in the physical presents its challenges. The greatest of these is the lost memory of who we really are; the belief that flesh is all there is. Once we recover our divine,cosmic identity, to over come the challenges posed by Kipling is our religious practice.

If there is meaning to our lives, it is this: That we are here to be authentic expressions of the divine and to encourage others toward that way of being. The "Mind of Christ" is one divine expression of the fullness of love in and through all. Perfect relationship. May you know yourself as "Image of God" the beloved expression of Sacred Being. Indeed, you are both the expression and the expressor. If you know yourself in this way, you will know all else in the same way, you will realize that all are One, and all that you know will be brought to sacred authenticity through you. Be you! The one and only true, authentic You! This is your destiny.

Expand yourself today! You are far more that you think you are and your influence is far greater. Be Peace! Peggy