When times are tough, the way not clear or fear comes far too close for comfort, remind yourself with this poem my father left for me so many years ago.

It brings things back to centre, avoids the smallness of things least helpful and reminds us all of who is the boss, who carries the key and who ultimately will walk free.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley