Father's Day Thoughts - 06/15/2014

Father’s Day Thoughts:

I have always liked the following poem by Rudyard Kipling. I first learned it when I was in 8^th grade and I read it as part of my homily at my father’s funeral mass many years ago. Today on Father’s Day I offer it to you, read it and remember what your father has given you, taught you and how he has loved you whether you are a son or a daughter. If you are a father, read it and remember what you are about in helping make good daughters and sons. Being a father is a great gift with great responsibilities. We pray for and ask God to bless all fathers today that they will always share their gift and always make a difference in our lives. And we ask those fathers who have passed on to watch over us and guide us down the right road.

Happy Father’s Day…

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 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!

(By Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936)

Happy Father's Day Dad! Thanks for the gift of life and all that you taught me over the years! Thanks for watching over me these last 34 years from your eternal home! I will love you always...Your Son, Paul Jr.