November 24th, 2014
Where are your Thanks? Where are the Thank You’s for all that you have done? Where is the recognition for all your sacrifices? Where are the accolades for all the times you put others needs ahead of your own?
Firstly, let’s be honest. All the times you have sacrificed, gone without, given of yourself, you did it because you didn’t have a choice. Your heart convinced you that it was the right thing to do and you acted upon that. You knew that giving of yourself was the only option and it most cases nobody else could have done it better. You gave because you cared.
Secondly, you are a lover. That is, you hold love as the most important thing in this world and you realize that if you don’t give of yourself, the world becomes a little less loving and that’s not a world you want to create if you can help it.
Thirdly, you’re a good person, a very good person. You feel for the suffering of others. I mean you really, really feel for the suffering of others, people, pets, wild creatures, etc. Oh, you might be the toughest, hardest case around but inside you love, you care, you want to alleviate suffering and increase happiness in others.
Where’s your Thanks? It’s in the way someone raises their children because of you. It’s the dog or cat that gets rescued because of your example. It’s the second chance that someone gives because you gave them one. It’s in the child who becomes a parent and suddenly understands the choices you made. It’s the kindness shown to a stranger because they were a stranger to you when you helped.
If you’ve been waiting for a Thank You for all you have done, here it is. THANK YOU for everything. THANK YOU for the kind words, the money, your presence, your touch. THANK YOU for making our world a little brighter, a little funnier, a lot more loving. Thank you for your sacrifices. They made a difference then and they will continue to for a very long time. THANK YOU.
(c)2014 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
April 16th, 2012
Mostly Sunny With A Chance of Showers
Imagine waking up in the morning and planning your day, you listen to the weather and the forecast is “Today will be mostly sunny with a chance of showers”, what would you do? Would you write the day off? Would you refuse to go outside for fear of being soaked? Would you tie down all the patio furniture?
Of course not! If you made any adjustment at all, maybe you would change your jacket or grab an umbrella. You, like everyone else, would feel pretty good at the prospect of sunshine. If you had a chance to eat al fresco at a cute little lunch place, you’d probably go for it especially if the sky looked clear. You would keep an eye on the sky and be ready to adapt if clouds came but you would enjoy the sunshine for as long as you could.
Every lifetime is sunny with a chance of showers. Oh, make no mistake about it, the rain will come on occasion and sometimes it will be a great big gully washer but the sunny days will always outnumber the rainy ones. The stormy days will be worth experiencing for one reason or another and of course the sunny days will be great to experience. The only days that you want to stay away from are the days that you don’t enjoy because you are waiting for a storm and it doesn’t show up. Those are the wasted days and you really don’t want too many of those. Better to be caught in the rain than to miss the sunshine.
March 15th, 2010
The greatest quest in every life is the search for happiness. Some people spend great amounts of money looking for it. Some grab hold of other people and try to wring it out of them. Some give years of their lives in barter for it. Some run down a road or two and not seeing any hint of it, give up looking for it.
Is it really that rare or are we looking in the wrong places? You see, there is a door marked GRATITUDE that we pass so very often as we open other doors in search of the one that contains happiness. Oh, we know that the door marked GRATITUDE is there all right because every time we pass it we make a solemn mental vow to come back and open it as soon as we find happiness and have something to be grateful for and so we continue our frantic pursuit of happiness.
We are trying to pick apples using a trampoline instead of a ladder. Oh, you’ll manage to grab an apple or two jumping up and down until you are too exhausted to eat one but you can have every apple in the tree and the time to enjoy them if you use a ladder instead. The trampoline is the way we have been going about it but gratitude is the ladder. It’s the first thing that you see when you open the door marked GRATITUDE. That ladder is the only way to get to happiness. Happiness exists on another level. It doesn’t exist on the level of frustration and doubt and complaining. If it did, those things would make you happy. Happiness exists on a level that only the ladder of gratefulness can take you up to. Every step up that ladder makes you consider the good where you only saw bad. Each step reminds you of the inherent good in people. Each step reminds you that there is always more blessings than adversities in your life. Each step beckons you to think with your heart too. Each step implores you to drop some of your baggage. What are you waiting for? Open that door, grab that ladder and start climbing. It’s a Heaven of a journey and it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.
©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com