March 28th, 2016
The problem with feeling loving and being happy is that it is so damn difficult to share.
Walk down any street looking down at the ground and have a worried look on your face and no one bats an eye. Walk down that same street with a big smile on your face and standing tall and people will avoid you like the plague.
Someone comes over and shares their personal tale of woe with you and you share similar tales of your own and you are bonded as friends. That same person comes over and tells you the same woeful tale and you hesitate to say how good your life is because you fear the end of that friendship.
A stranger next to you at the store remarks that the world is going to hell in a hand basket and you nod affirmatively. Telling them your short list of all the good things happening and the progress in so many areas seems like the wrong thing to talk about right then.
Only a small percentage of people will understand, support and celebrate your love and happiness but real friends will and pets will and trees will and people who are in love will and Heaven will and young children will and the wind will and Angels will and flowers will.
The truth is that you can’t always act happy but you can always be happy.
Imagine if you can that you swallowed a really bright light. In fact this light is so bright that it actually shines out through your body. Kind of like putting a bright candle in a milk jug. Well happiness is just like that candle. The jug still looks like an ordinary milk jug but now it’s illuminating everything around it.
You can still be a normal (for this era) looking person and you can still let your amazing love and happiness shine through you all the time. You can listen to a woeful tale and have concern on your face but you can be shining like a full moon. You can nod at the pessimism of a stranger but you can still be shining like a bonfire. You can walk down the street like everyone else but you can still be shining like the noonday sun.
There will be times when you can show your love and happiness and times when it just won’t be acceptable BUT you can always shine that love and happiness of yours from within. The right people will always notice it and the people who need some light in their lives will think that they always feel good around you.
Your mission should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible theme) is to be an incognito love and happiness shiner. Accept this mission and you’ll never again wonder about your purpose. Shine brightly!
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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March 17th, 2016
Yesterday was my birthday (thank you for all the good wishes) and this week is the unofficial 20th anniversary of Sundrops On Life so I thought I would take a one day break from the usual writing.
I’ve written over nine thousand Sundrops and over three hundred of the lengthier Monday messages and they go out to thousands of people all over the world. I asked myself yesterday “What’s it all about?”
I never set out to be a writer. I was happy just working and working out, meditating and loving. Twenty years ago I wrote a couple of sentences that touched me and I shared them and I just never stopped creating new ones.
Sundrops have always been thoughtful and uplifting. Some days I have to write and delete so many just to get the ones that feel right. When they touch me I know they will touch you. And to me that’s what it is really all about.
I write because I want you to be uplifted. I want you to feel better about yourself, your body, your mind, your circumstances. I want you to know that you are in control of so much more than you know. You control the volume on your happiness. You are the one who chooses a good song or a debilitating criticism to dwell upon.
I want you to have what I didn’t. I want you to have the words that will empower you to grow, to be strong, to make decisions, to be okay with mistakes. I don’t want you to ever, ever think that life isn’t worth living. I want you to have words to lean on that are free of dogma and preaching and separation. I want you to be happy that you are you. I want you to know that you can weather any storm.
I wish I could sit down with you and look into your eyes and tell you that you are lovable and beautiful and perfect. I wish I could wipe a tear or give a hug or be there when you need someone. I wish we could laugh together.
The closest I can come is to send my words to you and hope that you are uplifted. I want you to know that by being uplifted, everyone around you is benefitted.
I’ve never met Jashpreet in Malaysia or Kathleen in Belgium or Una in Dublin or Faten in Abu Dhabi or Susan in Oregon or Rosa in Chile or Mary in Hong Kong or Danielle in Florida or Kevin or Ella or Barbara or Dick or Steve or Eunice or Selena but you and thousands of others need to know that you are loved. You need to know that there is an ember of love even in the darkest of times and the winds of change can always make it burn brightly again.
I guess I answered my own question. These words and you and I are what it’s all about and love, lots and lots of love.
Patrick McBride’s Sundrops On Life
(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
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