Dance

March 16th, 2017

You don’t fall in love with the person. You fall in love with the spirit inside that person. That’s why as people get older and go through so many physical changes, the love still grows. You don’t fall in love with a pet, you fall in love with the spirit inside that pet. You don’t fall in love with a flower or a bird or a place. You fall in love with the spirit that is inside each of those. 

On the outside, everything and everyone is wearing some kind of costume. Some attract and some repel. It’s all part of a enormous masquerade. The music of life plays and we all dance. 

The costumes are ever changing. If it were not for the costumes we would hardly notice any differences. We would smile and nod and love. But throw a costume on every spirit and we can act outraged or amazed or any one of an infinite number of responses. 

When you truly love something or someone you love their spirit. When you can truly know that you are in love with their spirit you will find that the costume means nothing. And if the costume means nothing for one it means nothing for all. 

Dance with seven billion people costumes. Dance with trillions of tree costumes and bird costumes and rock costumes and fish costumes. Dance with one, Dance with dozens or Dance with them all. Dance until you laugh. Dance until you forget your costume. Dance until you forget theirs.

Today is my birthday and I love you and your costume. Thank you for this dance.  

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Tapestry

March 6th, 2017

One of the questions I am asked often is “Patrick, What is my purpose in life?” Maybe you have pondered this question yourself from time to time or, like some, this question greets you every morning and stays with you throughout every day.

Like threads in a giant tapestry, some lives go straight and some twist and turn and go backwards or upside down for awhile. Every single one of the threads is a necessary piece of the whole. Every twist and turn is absolutely necessary for the whole. Any tapestry would be incomplete if you removed but one thread. Your life too is an indispensable thread in the great tapestry of existence. 

No one just throws millions of threads on the ground and expects a beautiful tapestry to appear. It takes the hand and the imagination of a Great Power. Awareness that there is a great power and it is not just you alone in the wilderness gives you the opportunity to relax into a guided life.

You are never, ever alone. You are part of the whole and always will be. Your mistakes, your regrets, your achievements, your breathless moments, your caring, your fears, your loves and all that you are influences everyone you come into contact with in each and every moment. Sometimes they influence your color and sometimes you influence theirs and sometimes you deeply influence each other.

Throughout your entire life you will change and you will change others. Along the way you will be helped by unseen hands of course until that day comes when you leave this physical body and the colors of your physical life will be set never again to change and at that moment the thread that your life created will be perfect because you have been guided and your life will fill a unique spot in the tapestry of existence. 

So what is your purpose? Your purpose is to live. Your purpose is to explore your mind, body and soul. Your purpose is to experience everything with confidence because you know that you are developing a unique thread. Your purpose is to experience all that you can in order to give depth and richness to your colors. Your purpose is to come to the understanding that there is neither good nor bad but merely different hues and shades. Your purpose is to come to the liberating realization that you have guidance and not shackles.

Your purpose is to live and to love and to act and to react and to create and to laugh and to cry and to take all that life gives you with immense gratitude for the gift of having a life like no other and yet connected to all others.

Enjoy. You cannot get it wrong.

 

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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priceless

February 20th, 2017

Many of us buy a lottery ticket once in a while and daydream about having a great deal of money. For one dollar we get to imagine helping people in more ways than we are capable of doing right now. We get to imagine building and traveling and gifting on an immense scale. For one dollar we are the star and the lead in our own movie.

While dreaming big is a delicious flight of fancy, sometimes we tend to forget the priceless happiness in the smaller things in life. How about thinking about someone you love who has passed and while you are imagining that person, a butterfly comes close and gets your attention – priceless. 

How about the feeling when a small child notices your presence and quickly smiles and with raised arms begs you to pick them up and hug them – priceless. How about that time that you were just absently looking at the night sky and suddenly a shooting star appeared – priceless.

How about the taste of a certain food that only one relative could perfectly create every time – priceless. How about clean sheets, cool pillows, hot showers, clean cool water when you are thirsty, a stunning view after a beautiful climb, a long hug from someone you love, a great night’s sleep, the smell of someone you love, your favorite song, loving on your pet, feeling good without a reason, a great cup of tea, a sweet memory, a laugh that makes you laugh, a soft breeze, the sound of the ocean, the flames of a campfire, your bed after a long day, a smile from a stranger, dancing until you are the music, holding hands, the middle of a great book, a kiss from a child – each one of these and many, many, many, more – priceless.

Yes, it would be a trip to have a large sum of money but let us never forget the small, priceless joys and memories that fill our life. Let us spend more time focusing on what is right, beautiful and priceless in our life. Let us remember to remind each other and to be grateful when we are reminded of the good things in life. They are always, always there.

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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A plan

February 13th, 2017

We were out feeding the homeless one day and when you are engaged with that part of our community no two days are ever the same because the actions and reactions vary greatly from one person to the next. Anyway, every now and then something is said that is up there with the sayings of the great philosophers. 

For instance, one day I was handing out small bars of hotel soap that had been donated to us and Moses Green, a regular, took the bar with a giant grin and said “Right now I would rather have this than a bar of gold” and I said “Moses, with a bar of gold you could buy a truck full of soap” and he replied “Patrick, where is a dirty, homeless person going to sell a bar of gold? You have to understand that the way you are dressed is the way you are treated”. Priceless

This particular day we were handing out food and a very disheveled gentleman who had been carrying on a passionate conversation with no one in particular, took the food I was offering and after staring silently at me for a few moments and deeming me worthy of his advice, said “Do you know why I am on the street? Why in fact most of us are out here?” and without waiting for my reply he said ” I didn’t have money or a job or any help and that was like having leaks in my boat but the thing that actually sunk my boat was that I didn’t have a plan. A plan is what keeps you going man, gives you hope. A plan can always be altered and improved but you know what? If you ain’t got a plan you got nothing and nothing can’t be altered or improved. If you don’t want to end up nowhere, you gotta have a plan, man!” He turned around and restarted his passionate conversation with no one in particular and walked away.

I never knew his name or saw him again but I thank that philosopher in baggy clothes quite often. Whenever things don’t work out the way I wanted, instead of fretting and complaining, my first inclination thanks to this gentleman, is to ask myself “Okay, this didn’t work out the way I wanted so how do I alter my plan or come up with a new plan?”. 

Whenever I feel adrift or unproductive, instead of analyzing every thought and action and finding fault or laying blame (all the while accomplishing absolutely nothing), I get right to work on my overall plan and alter it if I can or if I can’t, I come up with a new plan as quickly as possible and then with map in hand I can move forward again. Like I heard on East Lancaster, “If you don’t want to end up nowhere, you gotta have a plan, man!”

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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The Play

January 30th, 2017

You go to the theater, get a good seat and wait to be entertained.The movie starts and five minutes into the movie Superman and his arch enemy Lex Luther confront each other and Lex turns to Superman and says;
“How do you like playing the part of Superman?” and Superman turns to Lex and says;

“Not bad really. I thought I would develop this part a little differently but the director said to do it like this and so I’m warming up to the idea that it’s okay.Oh, by the way, how are your kids doing in the new school?”

You sit bolt upright in your theater seat staring incredulously at the screen. You look around to see if everyone else in the theater is as outraged as you. You turn to the person next to you and say; “What is going on? I didn’t pay to see two actors talking reality to each other. I want them to act. Not to be themselves! This is not entertaining!”

If you don’t like this scenario then you are going to love living on planet earth. It’s a place where everyone is playing a part. Of course everyone is the same on the inside but on the outside OMG! What a diversity of characters. 

Of course most people here are so good that they get totally into their parts and seem to actually become their part. After all, “the mask the actor wears soon becomes the actor” is an old maxim and it is very true on this planet. 

It all starts when we are born here and at first we smile quite a bit because we know who we are and we know the truth about everyone else too. Slowly we are taught to identify with our name and our family and our neighborhood, our school, our city, our state, our country, our religion or lack thereof, our socioeconomic level and a host of other features. So we start becoming our mask and not ourselves.

​​​​​​​We never feel quite perfect about who we are but we are sure who other people are. We judge them and ourselves. We try to add more to ourselves as if something was missing as if we would soon become whole if we found the missing pieces. Many of us never understanding that we need less and not more to feel complete. 

 The truth is that we are whole. We are complete. We are eternal. We have passed our audition and come to play a part in the greatest play in the universe. We have a great Director who knows how this develops and how we contribute to it all. We really don’t have to know it all. We just have to concentrate on our part by listening for direction. 

The secret to enjoying all of this is that every now and then when the day is done, we need to relax, let go, remember who we are and smile. We need to step back and watch the play with seven billion cast members and appreciate the Director and have gratitude for our good fortune to be picked to be in this crazy, funny, touching, heartwarming, action packed blockbuster. And above all else we need to always remember…it’s a love story.

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Amazing not safe

December 12th, 2016

 As I walked around the cardiac care unit (again!) showing that I was fit enough to leave, I looked into each room as I passed and in every room I saw people who were alive. I don’t mean alive versus dead. I mean people who were very aware that this wasn’t just another day. I didn’t talk to any of them but I was thinking as I walked by that their last New Year’s Eve’s plans for the new year didn’t include this. Mine sure didn’t. And that’s when it hit me!

I didn’t have any plans. Sure I wanted to go camping and hiking and traveling more but mostly and dominantly, after all I have been through, I just wanted nothing bad to happen to my loved ones or myself. I had slipped into survival mode. Now survival mode is a great place to be when survival in questionable but it is NOT a place to just hang out and watch life go by. Firstly, it’s very stressful because when you are in survival mode you are always consciously or unconsciously considering the opposite. Secondly, survival mode is the illusion that if I don’t stick my head up I won’t get shot. In other words, the cosmic entity that doles out hardships won’t be able to see me!

​​​​​​​What a bunch of organic, grass fed manure I was believing! There is no certainty. This is life and life is a mystery. Unless you are in quicksand get out of survival mode. Survival mode is nothing more than a semi comfortable prison with an unlocked door. You keep praying that nothing bad will come in and so you keep hyper focused on that door to the exclusion of everything else life has to offer. That’s not living! Walk out that unlocked door. Engage the world. You are strong enough to handle anything out there. Go for the summit! You’ll never get to see the view from the top of the mountain if you hold up in a cave on the way up.

Yeah, I’m going to make some plans for 2017. You betcha! They are going to be audacious and magnificent and wonderful. Every day I am going to focus on being alive and being dialed into and open to all kinds of new possibilities. I don’t want life to be safe any more. I want it to be a trip again. I’m trading in safe for AMAZING.

How about you?

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Now

December 2nd, 2016

Are you going to die soon? Unknown. Are you going to die some day? Yes.

Are you going to die in your own bed in your clean pajamas with the sheets all perfectly placed around you after spending the last days surrounded by family and friends with enough strength and mental clarity to speak to each one and impart some of the wisdom that you gathered in your years here and at the end look into their eyes and tell them what they meant to you and how much you love them? 
Probably not.

The truth is that the vast majority of people die in hospitals oblivious to those around them. Sudden accidents, heart attacks and strokes take a few more. So, aside from being depressing instead of uplifting, what does this mean?

This means that NOW is the most important part of your life. This means that you and I are never assured that we will get to say all the I Love You’s that need to be said if we wait to say them. This means that there are people out there on this same planet that you and I need to go out and meet. They are not going to knock on our doors.This means that there are places on our wish list that still have not felt our footprints. This means that each hug and each smile should never be done without presence and sincerity. This means that you and I have to go into our box of dreams and dust them off and take steps to fulfill some of them NOW. This means that petty squabbles and petty annoyances will die with us and so will all the chances to connect again. This means that being right means nothing if you are being dead. This means that you and I have been holding back, keeping something in the tank for the future and we need to live bigger, better and more consciously NOW. 
Tell the people you love that you love them NOW. Impart the wisdom that you have learned NOW. Look at all of the photographs from years ago and let them fill you with gratitude NOW. Stop fussing about little things NOW. Dare to plan something new NOW. Do some of the things you were meaning to do someday NOW.

Live NOW. Love NOW. Remember what is truly important and always make it a major part of your NOW. Your life happens NOW and only NOW. Make it a great NOW for you and everyone in your life. Now that’s living.

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Inside Outside

October 17th, 2016

Who are you? You are a wonderful, heart centered, compassionate, seeker of equality, justice and positivity shining as brightly as you can. Always? Yes, always! 

 Truth?No!

Oh, maybe on a good day when the temperature is perfect and the blue sky is filled with beautiful, white puffy clouds and everyone smiles back at you and the scale said you are making amazing progress and you remembered to take your vitamins and you actually found time to meditate and wow, wasn’t that a great night’s sleep. 

My goodness, isn’t it easy to feel good when everything is perfect? But really, how often does that happen? Uh, let me think about that. Hmmm. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Truth? Yes!

If you are looking to things outside of you to make you feel good you are nothing more than a dead leaf being blown in whatever direction the wind is blowing. If however, you are looking inside for the source of your happiness then you are more like the green leaf on the tree that shakes with each storm but still clings to the source of its life.

Life outside of you can be mind numbingly chaotic, difficult and painful. Life inside of you can be gentle, strong and centered unless it is tainted by bringing the outside inside. Let me explain.

When something distressing happens, we immediately judge it. Has this ever happened before to you or anyone you know or in any book, movie or TV show you have seen? If yes, what is the best way it was handled and can I copy that? If no, freak out, freeze and/or run away.

​​​​​​​There is another way. It’s letting what is inside of you determine your response before the outside stuff overwhelms you. When you sense a “disturbance in the force” immediately start your positive self talk. “Whatever this is I can handle it.” “I am connected to a power that creates worlds” “I will maintain and bolster my inner strength”. “I will not succumb to the darkness and weakness of drama.” “I am  not diminished by anything or anyone”. “I control my level and volume of wellbeing”. “I am me and that is more than enough to handle this”.

Lots of people say lots of words every day but the words that determine how you feel are the words you say to yourself. Always make them strong and supportive. It’s who you really are.

Truth? OH YES! 

 

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

 Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Today

September 7th, 2016

Today I started to be happy. To those thoughts that hindered my happiness I gave the eviction notice of “Go in peace, thank you”. Without an eviction notice they would become squatters and soon they would be confirmed as permanent residents. 

I know now that my happiness needs to be fed, nurtured and protected. I cannot just expect to go somewhere or buy something and be happy forever. 

I cannot expect some Divine entity to check on me and see if I am following some ancient rules to the letter and only if I am, grant me happiness. 

I cannot expect my good works to absolve me from thinking thoughts that drag me away from happiness. I have found that it is quite possible to do good things and still think worrying thoughts.

Like hot water on a beautiful ice sculpture, I have found that my dreams disappear when I become overwhelmed with what is wrong in this world.

Today I started to be happy. I will not turn my eyes from the suffering in this world or from the pain of its inhabitants but I will strive to shine brightly regardless.

It would be a terrible excuse for a lighthouse to be only dimly lit because there was a raging storm going on. It is in the storm and in the darkness that its brightest output is required.

Today I started to be happy and to begin to let my happiness fuel the light within me. Today I know that I cannot calm all the seas but that I can make the seas around me brighter.

Today is a very good day.

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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Dragon

August 29th, 2016

 When it’s time to make a change you’ll know it but the knowing isn’t the first step. It isn’t any step at all. It is a realization. Knowing that you have to make a change is just looking down and realizing that you on not on the path you thought you were on.

 You can sit with that realization your whole life. You can go to your grave never have taken any action on that realization and it’s totally understandable. Because taking any action whatsoever on that realization will move you off of that comfortable place you call the present.

 Your present might be filled with problems but they are known problems. Your present might be filled with pain and loss but they are familiar. Your present might seem empty but it’ll do for another day.

 When you decide to take action and change your whole life (you will never just change one thing. Everything is connected) the unknown will be your foe, your fire breathing dragon. It is ready to awaken and turn your new courage to ashes for the audacity of wanting to change.

 Before it incinerates your courage it will berate you. “Don’t you know how lucky you are? You should be grateful for what you have!” And when you are brought to your knees by doubt, indecision and procrastination the fire will commence to destroy what could have been. And the calendar will start flipping its pages faster than ever.

 If you slay the dragon you are not done. The “What If?” fog will quickly roll in and disorient you. Should you do this or that? Should you go this way or that way? What if you go in the wrong direction? What if you disappoint others? What if you lose everything? What if the next step is off a cliff? Maybe you should just wait until the fog disappears. It. never. does.

 So, you say you still want to change? I applaud your decision. You may not make it but at least you got into the arena. If you got as far as the arena, you best chance of making a change is to follow these rules: 
1) Get physically stronger than you are. Eat, sleep and exercise. Change your body and your courage grows. 

2) Meditate. Doubt can find no room in a peaceful mind.

3) Write it down. Writing down the change you want to make begins the transformation. This step is crucial.
4)Begin each day with a knowing smile.
​​​​​​​5)Reduce your little pleasures. They are killing your appetite for larger ones.
6)Step away from toxic people, places and thoughts.

7) Love everything but most importantly yourself. 

This may be the time to go for it or it may be the time to seriously plan. Either way, I’ll always have a supportive word or two for you. 

Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.

(c)2016 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride 
 www.PatrickInspires.com

 
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