On this last day of an old year and the cusp of a new, I address and dedicate this poem to children everywhere, with hopes of a brighter future and better world.
Hear well my young friends, wherever you are: Your lives are yours to venture afar. Your days will go on in chapters untold, The chapters will flow as your stories unfold. The future is yours to have and to hold, To dream and to hope, to build what is bold, To breathe and to think, to enjoy and to play, But how the story ends . . . is yours to say. For you will inherit the best and the fair -- All that humankind has left to your care. But stand tall, my dear friends, amid grief and regrets And what all the dark forces will seek to beget. May your lives flow on like a river true In all and whatever you say and you do. May you act without force and without holding back -- The way it is with children in fact. [Rilke] So the world and I to you extend Great hopes and congratulations! May fortune’s favors find no end Exceeding all your expectations. [Justice Robert Jackson] And be happy, my dear ones, be joyful and free, Live with purpose, with promise, with fervor and glee! Live not only to work; work not only to live And strive to learn much, to build and to give. [Sam Rudolph] Those whose work and pleasures are one are fortune's favorite children. – Winston Churchill
Fantastic…. Thank you!