June 25th, 2012
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Today I would like to give a big birthday shout-out to my son who is turning 22 years old!  I am so thankful that you are in my world because you inspire me!!!
Your journey has not been an easy one and I think you’ve already learned many of life’s valuable lessons:  you are truly loved very much by me and many others, be true to yourself and listen to your inner voice, take the high road when you can, but if it’s time to get down and dirty then bring it on and face it.  Losing your father at a young age showed you there were many different paths towards healing and you have worked hard to find the right one for you.
I hope you have a birthday that’s as special as you are and in honor of your special day I would like to give you the classic poem written in 1895 titled, “If” by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling.
By today’s standards, I’m sure you’ll think this poem probably has a bit too much of the “stiff upper lip” philosophy but there are guiding principles and philosophies that still hold true centuries later.
IF
By Rudyard Kipling
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!

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