December 23rd, 2011
About two thousand years ago a baby was born just like so many others but this one would change the world. The baby Jesus was born and things would never be quite the same again. Now whether the date is right or the description of the events is right doesn’t matter. Whether this child was a prophet or a god or an alien doesn’t matter either. Whether he did this or that doesn’t matter either. The only thing that matters was that he loved and that he loved so big and so much that he will never be forgotten.
The message this time of year is love. Now whether that love is equated with the lights of Diwali or the lights of the Menorah or the growing daylight after the Solstice or the birth of a special child, it’s all the same message. To argue over dates and times and acts and perceptions and not focus on the love is to find fault with the box that holds the diamond and never open it.
You don’t have to believe in anything specific to understand how good it feels to love and be loved. Your beliefs aren’t armor to be put on to protect you. Your beliefs should help you shed the armor of ignorance, to be able to stand naked before the world and know, like Jesus, that the only thing that matters is that you love and that is all the protection and direction you will ever need.
This season, don’t look for what is wrong. Look for what is right. Don’t look for where we are different from each other but try as hard as you can to find out where we are the same. This season let us forget all the factions and divide the world into only two, those who love and those who need love and let us each take turns being one or the other. This is the season of love. Do your part. Make it last.
(c)2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
December 19th, 2011
You could read all the right books, get enough sleep, meditate, pray, exercise and eat right and still be short changed on what life could possibly give you. It is all because you are missing the most important thing of all. You could be conscious, present and grateful and still feel like “That’s it?”. On the other hand, you could actually do very little in the way of study or self improvement but if you have the one crucial thing, it really wouldn’t matter. Life would be still be a constant joy.
It doesn’t matter what troubles lay in front of you or even right on top of you. It doesn’t matter where or how you live. It does matter however if you have ENTHUSIASM!
The person with enthusiasm doesn’t search for the light. The person with enthusiasm generates light. The person with enthusiasm doesn’t duck “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” for they know that their enthusiasm, their zest for life is their armor.
Enthusiasm is the precursor to every good thing you desire. Without it, life is a grey struggle. With it, life is a rainbow with a promise of pots of gold.
If you open the front door and go to step outside and suddenly realize you are not prepared to deal with the weather, you go no further. You go back and dress properly. Take a moment before you embark on your day or your project or your work and ask yourself, “Is my enthusiasm valve open wide, barely open or closed?” If it is not open wide, go no further! Stop and tell yourself that “My enthusiasm comes from my intent and my intent is to honor the gift of my life with constant enthusiasm”. No venture or life can be successful without it. Open that valve!
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
December 12th, 2011
We wait, poised and ready for the answers. We know that sometime, somewhere it’s all going to make sense. All we have gone through, all of our trials and tribulations will be seen as an absolutely essential part of the puzzle. We will be rewarded just for the fact that we kept going. But…. what if we are wrong?
Maybe, just maybe we are not here to just make it through the maze, the jungle. Maybe, just maybe we are here to create and not to just survive. Maybe we are here to create a path so unique and so bold as to actually upset some people. Maybe we were meant to face derision and rejection and ridicule for our way of thinking and acting and being. Maybe it is not about fitting in.
You have always followed the beat of a different drummer at least in your thoughts. It is time to dance publicly to that drumbeat. Stop hiding. Find a way to express your love today. Question one of your cherished beliefs today. Don’t complain even once today. Don’t try to just get through this day. Gild this day. Do whatever you can to make it incredible. Rewrite the script you already have written for today. Make your part better, more fortunate.
There is a revolution that is starting and it’s all inside of you and it’s all about freedom, your freedom. You are not an extra in this play. You are the star. Act like it.
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
December 5th, 2011
The greatest work is your selfishness. Practice it. Perfect it.
OMG! What is he saying? Doesn’t he know that we need to share, to help, to give until we have no more to give? Sacrifice for your friends and family. Isn’t the mantra of all of the good people selflessness? What kind of eighties throwback me generation thinking is this?
Listen. You must be thoroughly and perfectly selfish before you can ever hope to be selfless. If you don’t work on you, what do you have to give? If you do not follow the principles of health and abundance and devotion yourself, how can you teach by example? If you have not lit your own candle, how will you light others?
Take a close, long look at yourself. Are you walking your talk? Are you as kind to yourself as you espouse to be to the rest of humanity? It is good to be all Gandhi like in your meditation and your yoga practice but what happens when you get off your mat? Is your home, your room, your workplace a place of tranquility and balance?
Or is your mind filled with thoughts of abundant problems and scarce resources? Are you coaching, teaching, instructing others to believe in their own awesomeness? What about yours?
If you want to make a positive difference in your world, your family, your workplace, your relationships then you have to work on you. You have to be selfish for a while until you are what you teach. Get healthy. Get happy. Wear your best clothes. Eat better. Use the good plates. Declutter your surroundings. Have patience. Believe in abundance. Expect good fortune. Love yourself unconditionally. Walk in gratitude. Look for what is right in you. Accept yourself.
Who you are when you are walking in nature or on the mat, in the temple, church, synagogue or ashram is who you need to be as often as you can. A loving, balanced, positive, peaceful you is the best gift you can give to anyone. Be a little selfish. Practice what you preach. The world, your world is wanting you to make a positive difference. Don’t disappoint them.
(C) 2011 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com