Guck and a Doat

I've decided. I'm going to live on a farm when I'm older. I'll have ducks and chickens and a sheep called Betty. I'm hesitant about cow's, scary buggers! A Shetland Pony would be deadly too.

Of course this is alongside the cats, dogs and children. I've always wanted kids. When I was 5 I turned to my family and announced that when I grew up I was going to have loads of kids but I wasn't going to get married. My Mum now says she should have known I was gay then.

I've been thinking about families since the Civil Partnership Bill has gone to The Dail. I'm finally pursuing a career I really want, but it's not overly well paid. This didn't bother me until I realised I'll need to be earning a certain amount to adopt as a single parent. I haven't looked up the regulations but I'm sure they're very very strict.

This, along with many others, is one of the reasons I'm fighting for marriage equality. I want equal treatment for my kids, I want to have the family I always dreamed of. As a kid I never dreamed of the white dress and the big party. I dreamed of the babies and children. The house with a massive garden, full of screaming happy children and animals. The birthday parties, communions, confirmations, school tests and pictures on the fridge. Going to see a very proud Nana and having their aunty over.

I know I can't do this alone, but more importantly I don't want to. I want to have someone to share these moments with, someone else who'll laugh at me for crying when I'm proud, who'll remember the silly things I'm known for forgetting. Someone to argue with me about the colour of the living room and hold me back from strangling mean teachers. Someone to tell me that rabbits with 4 cats isn't my best idea.

I want it all. Is it that much to ask for?

If

Rudyard Kipling
If

If

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 imposters 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 wornout 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 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,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!