December 28th, 2015
“The new year is almost here and I can’t wait. I just wish it were here already. Don’t you?”
Uh, NO!
“WHY???”
Because today is the gift I just opened. I want to sit with it, explore it. I want to open my heart and my mind to it. I want to be here, to be grateful and to be aware of every minute of it.
I have no fear or love of the new year simply because it’s not here yet. I would not step out into a chasm now because there was going to be a bridge there in a few days. I want to savor what is here now. I don’t want to be eating my lunch and discussing what I want for dinner. I want to enjoy every bite of my lunch and to be grateful for the taste, the nutrition and everything that brought it to me.
I don’t want to start thinking about the weekend on Monday. I don’t want to think about Monday on the weekend. I want to tell you I love you so that you will feel my love in this moment and not because you will remember this moment in some future.
When we hug it could be the last hug for either one of us. I want to be there when we hug. I don’t want any part of my day to be on auto pilot while I go rummaging around in the past making believe it was different. I want to go out and feel today’s sun and not sit inside fantasizing about the possibility of next summer vacation’s sun.
I want today, right now, to be forever. I want to walk slow enough to take it all in. I want to eat slow enough to taste every bite. I want to hear the music and the words. I want to love so slowly that every moment is ecstasy.
Don’t live today as if it were your last. Live today like it was your only day and you had the power to do anything.
In a few days I will wish you a Happy New Year but right now I want to wish you a happy today. A today that is so deliciously slow that you don’t miss a thing.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
December 21st, 2015
It is really very simple. If you want to enjoy Christmas then go ahead and enjoy it. If you want to complain about greed and materialism and people’s attitudes then you don’t really want to enjoy Christmas.
Sure, there’s traffic and crowds and stressed out people but there is also expectant children. There is also the chance for many people to say “Look, I know this year has been tough but I want to take this opportunity to show you that I care”.
And really that’s what Christmas gives us. It gives us an opportunity. It gives us a chance to celebrate something. It gives us a chance to give a gift in return for support given. It gives us a chance for a couple of weeks to decorate where we live with some of the colors and ornaments that make us happy.
Yes, there is a religious message too at this time of year. It is a message of light and love. It is the light of the Star of Bethlehem. It is the lights of Diwali. It is the Hanukah lights. It is the increasing daylight that comes with the Solstice. It is the lights on the tree in Rockefeller Center. It is the light of the dinner candles in countless homes as family and friends gather for a holiday feast. It is, at its very core, the light within each of us.
In a few hours THE day will arrive. Can you rise to the occasion? Can you see the light in the hearts around you? Can you feel the light within you. You should, it’s the first gift you ever received.
Have a wonderful Christmas but before it comes please decide whether you are going to celebrate or criticize this occasion. You can’t do both and right now I do believe that this world has more than enough critics. Go ahead, be the rare one. Be the one who celebrates light and love unconditionally and if you do, my door and my heart is always open to you. Merry Christmas.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life