Quill + Chorus

August

Hello, dear friends! Happy August! Summer is winding down for us and we are starting to get back into our school routine. I came back so inspired from the CMI Joy of Making Conference last week, and I am excited to start implementing some of the ideas into my day.

This month's poem is "If" by Rudyard Kipling. I like this poem because it is a good reminder of the virtues one should cultivate throughout one's life.

The musing for this month is on reading Shakespeare with a group. I know many of us are beginning school this month, and I hope some of the tips in this article are helpful if you are reading Shakespeare with your co-op.

I have also included a painting in this letter, "Shepherdess and her Flock" by Jean-François Millet. The reflective nature of this painting seemed to me a good way to close off the summer.

This month's quote is from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, inspired from Dr. Elizabeth Millar's talk at the CMI conference this past week.

Poetry

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!