Focus on what you are becoming
January 31st, 2010
In 1964 at the NY Worlds Fair I was deeply impressed by many, many beautiful sights but the one that will always be with me was the Pieta at the Vatican pavilion. The Pieta is an incredibly beautiful sculpture created by Michelangelo in 1499. It is a sculpture of the Blessed Virgin and her dead son, Jesus.
If we could travel back to 1497 in his studio we would see the Pieta taking shape from a solid block of marble and all around the sculpture we would see a pile of rubble where the pieces that had been deftly chipped off now resided. This is exactly what is going on in our life. We are born like that great block of marble and God slowly and perfectly takes off what we don’t need in order to uncover the masterpiece that we really are. Instead of exalting at the masterpiece that is being uncovered, we spend our time wailing at the rubble. “How could God have taken that away from me?” we cry. “How could that relationship no longer be a part of me?” “I needed that house, that job, those dollars, my youth!” “There’s my regrets laying all over the place. They were such a part of me!” “There’s my fears. They kept me on alert!” “There’s my mistakes!” “There’s my difficult times!” Our tears spill over the pieces that once were a part of us but rarely do we look at what we have become without them. We focus on the loss unaware that a masterpiece is being created. All that is on the ground is of no use to us now and yet that is where we spend our time and thoughts. Everything that God takes away from us is because it is time for it to leave so that another part of our strength and beauty can be revealed. Put your focus on what you are becoming. Take your focus off what you no longer are.
In 1972 a crazed man took a hammer to the Pieta. He chipped off many pieces including Mary’s nose before he was restrained. In order to repair the Pieta there was no way that the marble could be matched perfectly so they had to take some marble from inside of the statue. In our lives there are many ways that we can be hurt and there is nothing outside of ourselves that will ever fix it. We too will have to go inside to find what truly repairs our hurt.
We are all works in progress and it is unfair to criticize any piece before the Master is finished with it. Have patience with others and keep your focus on what you are becoming and off the rubble that is no longer a part of you. Love and Blessings, Patrick
January 25th, 2010
There are those mornings when everything seems a bit “off”. There is a nagging part of you that says that there is a good chance that it is going to be one of “those” days. You steel yourself against the onslaught of terrible things and you make up your mind to just try to get through it the best that you can. Every little upset in the day comes with a mental I told you so and you forge ahead and in all probability you will indeed get through it. At the end of the day you are worse for all that you endured but relieved.
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!
That is the old paradigm playing over and over again. The new paradigm, should you choose to accept it, goes like this. The morning seems to start on a negative note so you immediately start bringing to mind all of your many blessings. You force yourself to think about happy times. You treat the people in your life with more joy than you feel. You focus on how you can make someone else ‘s day better. You watch your body and make sure it is holding itself in a posture of confidence and positivity instead of slumping until someone asks you what is wrong. You bring your heart, your soul and your body into a positive alignment. You keep adjusting your sails until you are going the way you want to go and not the way the wind is blowing. At the end of the day you didn’t just make it through the day, you took the rough diamond you were given this morning and made it a priceless gem. Were you fooling yourself? No more than you were when you acted as if it was going to be a not so nice day. I like the new paradigm better.
©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
January 19th, 2010
You reflect on your life in a good mood and you say “It’s been great!”. You reflect on your life in a down mood and you say ” It’s always been disappointing!”. In both reflections you are talking about the exact same life. Which one is right? Is one a lie? The truth is that everything in this world is exactly how you perceive it to be at that moment. It really is all about you. All you ever have is your own perspective. If you put on a pair of glasses with very dark lenses and wore them in a dark room you would stumble around as if blind. Would you be lying? No, of course not. You would honestly not be able to see well. If you didn’t believe that it was the dark glasses that were the cause of your inability to see more clearly you would resign yourself to believing that you really couldn’t see very well.
What you see is totally dependent upon how you feel and that’s it! The circular part of all of this is that how you feel is soon influenced by how you see things. You feel ugly -you see only ugliness-which makes you feel ugly -which makes you see ugly-ad infinitum. This continues for a while or a lifetime or until you shout ENOUGH! and make a commitment to yourself and to Heaven to look for what is right and beautiful no matter how you feel or what you see. Understand, it really is all about you. Your happiness, your contentment, your joy are all a direct result of how your are seeing. You were born without dark glasses and that’s why you smiled so much. Somewhere along the line someone convinced you that it would be better if you wore the dark glasses. They were wrong. Take them off. See the beauty in your life. See the beauty and love in everything around you. See the unbelievably marvelous creation that you are a part of and be happy. All really is well.
January 1st, 2010
Happy New Year! I wanted to take this moment and let you know that you are standing on the threshold of the very best time of your life. All that you have read and studied, all that you have dreamed and fantasized about, all that you have been taught by two legged teachers and four legged teachers and by experience and tears has been to fully equip you for this wonderful time. You are ready. Get rid of your doubts again and again and again. Walk your beliefs. Breathe your beliefs. Be your beliefs. You know what you want and you know what is right and good for you. Bring joy and consciousness to everything that you do. Don’t expect everything you do to bring consciousness and joy to you! You are and always have been a generator of love and joy. TURN UP THE VOLUME. Fill your life with what feels right to you. Acknowledge your problems but spend ALL of your time and energy on the solutions not on the problems.
The clarion call has gone out and it’s playing reveille! It’s time to wake up and create your joy and it’s time to let any and all negatives pass right by you like leaves in the wind. Forget the leaves! You’re after the bloomin’ flowers! Love and Blessings, Patrick