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
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
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
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
February 6th, 2017
Is this relationship worth it? All throughout our life we are in relationships. We have relationships with people, companies, governments, etc. Today, let’s talk about our people relationships.
Whether we are in a work, friend or significant other relationship with another person there are constantly millions of dynamics at work. Sometimes they work seamlessly and sometimes they don’t. When they do, it’s a little slice of heaven. When they don’t, the upsets can be catastrophic to your well being on every level.
If you are going to walk away every time a relationship upsets you, you are going to have an infinite number of very, very short relationships and you will never know the joy of a deep, give and take relationship. However, if you are going to put up with upsets let’s have some rules.
Rule#1- Physical violence or even the threat of physical violence is instant termination, no warning necessary.
Rule#2- Bullying, verbal abuse, outright or in the guise of “I was only joking”, instant termination after one and only one warning.
Rule#3- Being drunk or high is never an excusable reason for treating you badly. Instant termination after one warning unless rule #1 is breached than no warning is due.
Rule#4- You don’t have permission to be a jerk because they are a jerk.
Rule#5- You may be real, real close but you are not them and they are not you.
Rule#6- People change. That includes you.
Rule#7- Sometimes it is nothing in particular. It is just time to move on.
Rule#8- NEVER count on changing someone else! You will never get a cat to bark and trying only frustrates you and pisses off the cat.
Rule#9- When it is really LOVE, you won’t have to talk yourself into it.
Don’t expect or, heaven’s forbid, demand perfection in a relationship and remember that all relationships should be beneficial to both people. One-sided relationships are awful. If it’s good, enjoy every moment. Who knows, it could last a lifetime. If it’s bad, don’t wait too long to jump overboard. It is never a good idea to go down with the ship.
Review your relations every now and then to make sure that you haven’t gotten too comfortable with less than you deserve. Reviewing also helps to know if you are getting lazy and taking the other person for granted. Ask yourself often “Am I loving and present to my full potential?” and “Is our relationship as good as it can be?” and “How can I be better at this?”.
Relationships are everything you can imagine and so much more. Be realistic about your role and what you want in the other person. Be as loving, caring and supportive as you can be all the time and never, ever, ever expect the cat to bark.
Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.
Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
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
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
November 23rd, 2016
I wrote this in 2011 and I believe that it is a still a great idea. Enjoy!!
I know that there are many of you in many countries all over the world who read these daily Sundrops. Tomorrow in the US is the holiday of Thanksgiving and I would like to propose a new way of celebrating it. A new way in which everyone in the world can participate. Starting tomorrow, let the day be not only a day of thanksgiving and gratitude but from now on let this day be criticism free.
No matter where we live or what beliefs we hold, every year on the fourth Thursday in November, let us all be criticism free for a day. Let us all refuse to criticize anything about this day. We will refuse to criticize how others act just for this day. We will refuse to criticize the weather, the food, the neighbors, any country, any person. We will not criticize what others believe or how they raise their children or what they do with their money or how anyone drives. We will politely listen to others criticize but not add a gram of our own.
Whatever we have will be enough for this one day. Whatever others have or how they got it will be fine for this day. Whatever criticisms we have of governments, corporations, politicians, media, medical fields or even ourselves we will postpone for one day.
Every year let the fourth Thursday of November be a great holiday for each and every one of us. Let us celebrate this holiday by being completely without criticism of any person, place or condition. Let us celebrate what is well and right in this world. We will find that when we let ourselves be entirely devoid of criticism, it will open more room for Gratitude and Thanksgiving and that is guaranteed to make us happy. I wish you a very happy day!
Sundrops on Life – Better Thoughts. Better Days.
Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
November 21st, 2016
When you get a new driver’s license what do you do with the old one? Do you keep it in your wallet? Can you imagine never throwing away an expired license and just letting them stack up in your wallet decade after decade?
Of what use would the old ones be? You wouldn’t even resemble the picture in the old ones any more. A very ridiculous concept, don’t you agree?
If you do agree than can you explain why you keep pictures of your old identity in your thoughts. Why do you still see yourself as that kid that got picked on or was fat or was a late bloomer in one or more areas of your life? Is that your identity now or did that expire a long time ago? When you meet someone new do you pull out an old driver’s license and say that’s who you are? Of course not!
The old you is gone. It exists in a different time and vibration. Every single day you are better than you were the day before it. Each day you have twenty four hours more of experience, of thinking, of growing. Who you were is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is who you are right now! To compare yourself to who you were is a grave injustice.
The only thing standing in your way of being who you want to be is all the expired yesterdays you keep trying to see as current. You are not in third grade anymore. You are not stumbling in your very first relationship anymore. You are not hindered by childish inexperience anymore. You are so much better than all that now.
Today waits at your bedside each morning with open arms welcoming you to unlimited possibilities. It says to you as you awaken “Leave yesterday to yesterday. I have enough for you to enjoy all day”. This day is unique, precious and priceless. Be grateful. Be open. Be amazed. Today is still wet clay, a new canvas. In the hours that are left it can still be reshaped or repainted. Make it a masterpiece. You deserve it!
Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.
Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
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
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
September 19th, 2016
There is a certain sweetness to life. It doesn’t mean that every day is a day at the beach but there is a certain sweetness in every day. Maybe it’s a glimpse of a white puffy cloud or maybe seeing a butterfly in the city or maybe it’s some distant laughter or the smile of a child. Sometimes it just surprises you and sometimes you have to search like a pearl diver running out of air to find it.
Imagine a tightly sealed jar of honey and imagine that you put it into a big vat of sour pickles. Wait a couple of hours and then take it out, rinse it off and open the jar and take a spoonful. Does it taste like pickles or honey? Honey of course! But why? The sweet honey was sealed in a glass jar. Nothing could get in no matter how many hours it stayed in the sour brine.
You have the ability in every moment of your life to put a non porous barrier between you and your surroundings. We do it often. Walk through any tourist area amongst the panhandlers and aggressive vendors. Get squished into a crowded elevator or subway car. You instinctively put up that barrier and you turn your thoughts inward and many times you find sweetness inside in your thoughts and memories and everything becomes bearable.
If you find yourself surrounded by sour circumstances, leave if you can but if you can’t, then put up that barrier and intentionally search for the sweetness in your thoughts and memories.
Let the sweetness come in and savor it and always make it more important than any sourness outside.
Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.
Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
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
Facebook – Sundrops On Life
July 11th, 2016
Out of the corner of our eye we catch the flash of a firefly in the darkness of the night. Thrilled to be seeing one after so long we scan the darkness for another flash not knowing where it will appear next.
For many people the flash of a firefly in the night is akin to the flash of happiness in their life. It suddenly appears and than disappears and they wait for another flash of happiness somewhere sometime.
“But”, you say, “I have more happiness than just a brief flash once in a while”. “Excellent” I say. “How big is your celebration?” “What celebration?” you say. “The celebration for all the happiness in your life.” I say
When something goes wrong in our life, everybody hears about it. We walk like we have a problem. We talk like we have a problem. We eat poorly and we mope around. There is no other topic to talk about except our problem.
We all have some happiness in our life and most of us would like more but where is the gratitude and the celebration for what we have? Where is the joy for all the people who have loved us and helped us? Where are the feel good feelings?
When our life is free of problems we look to where we live for problems. When our life and surroundings are problem free we look to our work and our friends for problems. When our life, our surroundings, our work and our friends are good we look to the world for problems. WHY???
Stop looking for problems! Focus on what is right in your life. Focus on what is good in your dwelling. Focus on the benefits of your work. Focus on the love of your friends. Focus on the beauty of the planet. Ask yourself – Right now am I looking for what’s right or what’s wrong?
Never let the pursuit of happiness be sidelined by the pursuit of problems.
Sundrops On Life – Better Thoughts. Better Days.