when the going gets tough

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, Invictus

I don't know about you but if I had to read aloud those last two lines, I hear my voice booming. It's that powerful. The fact that we all go through pain however the circumstances, made these words more meaningful.We all go through different shapes and sizes of problems, we've had the best, we've had our worst. People may stop by to comfort but at the four corners of our own self, we're really alone. Think of yourself standing in a very dark hallway. Being afraid is a normal human reaction. But being able to stand despite that and being able to hold on to that last sanity is something out of the ordinary.

The poem is dark and bleak. But it offers many passages of hope.Those last two lines encompasses plain faith. It definitely put our own bahala na philosophy in its very rightful place because it's not enough being passive and succumb to the moment. Those last two lines let's us see what we are capable of doing. That we are way way huge than the problems we were facing. After all, a bad master and a lousy captain only spells disaster.