GOOD EVENING ALL,
Tonight, a meditative tribute to all those who suffer from TBI, sent to me directly from a reader: I’ve left in her use of color for emphasis. And for my comadres who detect the patriarchal focus: Have heart; Kipling was writing in the 19th century.
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 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 it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
For up to date information on how to heal and prevent Traumatic Brain Injury, go to http://www.brainline.org
Synaptically yours,
Dr. G.
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Tags: Advances in Neuroscience, Brain Science, Meditation with Poetry, Poetry Therapy, Right/Left Brain Therapy, Rudyard Kipling, Self Improvement, Traumatic Brain Injury
This entry was posted on December 3, 2008 at 6:58 am and is filed under Advances in Neuroscience, Brain, Brain Training, Cognitive Science, Meditation, Mind/Brain Training, Neuro-Aesthetics, Right/Left Brain, Somatic, Whole-Brain Neuroscience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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December 3, 2008 at 7:27 pm |
Very cool.
Let’s never forget that the human race has been getting smacked around and bumped on the head and knocked out and stomped on, for generation after generation after generation. Head injuries are not new to the human race, but now we’re learning much more about them, how to deal with them, how to heal from them (not just suck it up and keep marching).
Of all things that have seen me through the past 30+ years of multiple-TBI after-effects, sheer force of will has been my most valuable asset. No matter what my difficulties — perceived or real, interior or exterior — so long as I’ve just held on and kept going, things have never failed to change for me. Sometimes they changed for the better, sometimes for the worse… but so long as I never quit trying, never quit moving, never quit giving it my all, I always had a chance to turn it around.
Despite what so many love to say, TBI is not the end of the world. Despite the losses — and there will be losses — there are things to be gained.
So never, ever, ever give up!
December 10, 2008 at 3:50 am |
BrokenBrilliant: Your comment is so valuable as to give strength to all who suffer with TBI (and any injury for that matter!) Life has a way of catching us off guard and we seem to recover
our balance when there are others around who can relate to and champion our cause! From my experience, we do not heal alone.
I’m fascinated that you use the term “will” as it speak to something “other” kind of awareness, other
than intellect, other than ordinary emotion, that drives one forward to face insurmountable challenges. Would you mind sharing with on this blog, the sorts of things that helped develop your will>
Things you or others may have said or done?
Dr. G. sending breath your way