I’m literally driving down PCH and despite my fear of being ticketed for another $160 mobile device violation that the Highway Patrol so happily issue, I take the chance to dictate into a cool little iPad app that is tolerant to my voice.

I do so because my heart is on fire from the meeting I just completed; one in which, without anticipating, has lifted me up after a few weeks of fatigue. So as I drive, eyes on the horizon, scanning for flashing lights, I can’t stop reflecting upon the essence of my conversation with stranger turned friend, the lovely Patricia.

“Awareness is the only way we can make change…” Patricia warmly encourages. “Our behavior as humans being, for all of us, is a default mode. It is like a computer. It’s how we have programmed ourselves. We have to reprogram ourselves from the past. You cannot change the present if you disregard everything you have done up until now. And that default mode is there for a reason. And, if you want to change, you have to be aware. In our comfort zone we are in that default mode that we did yesterday, and the day before, and the year before.

“You have you have the desire to change; you have to look outside of that default zone, even if it is uncomfortable. You have to want to change, and for many that’s not easy.

“Too many people are trapped in the concept of how old am I. What does that mean? And how old you are? Whatever number it is, it only tells us how long you have been here. It really does not tell us much of anything else, does it?

“You have to ask, what are you doing here and why are you doing what you do while you are here? It is far more important than how long you are here.

“We should be laughing more,” Patricia advises.

“If you focus on time only you are putting yourself in a prison. If you want to do something… do it. Stop looking at time. Age is an excuse. Find a way to have fun in whatever you do.

“Life is nothing more than an experience. It’s all about us interpreting and making choices and how we interpret. We are born to see if we can see through the illusion. Fear creates an illusion that we ‘can’t,’ and if we buy into the illusion it become real.”

Patricia answers the 365 questions:

If you could give the people of the world any advice, council, or pass on any wisdom, what would you tell them?

“’First, I would pass on this advice; there is an infinite intelligence, one presence, one power in this universe and we are not separate from it.  It doesn’t matter what religion you may practice, or doctrines you follow, if you are breathing right now then this one presence, this one power, one life is breathing you to be you… so you are not separate from it. It permeates through every cell of your body, vibrates in all your energy.  With this you can always know that you are connected, there is no ‘alone.’

“Second, I would tell people, ‘beauty’ has nothing to do with what someone or something looks like.  Beauty is a feeling.  When we look at the ocean, the mountains, a painting, a person, it is the FEELING it gives us that determines if we think it is beautiful.  So actually, beauty is in the heart of the beholder.’”

Looking ahead five, ten, fifteen, twenty even one-hundred years and beyond, where do you see the planet, or the people being? Or how, or what, do you advise us regarding the future?

“Spend less time worrying about how long the path is and focus more concern on what you’re doing on the path.  It’s never the number of years that matters, it’s what you do with the ones you have.”

In closing Patricia point us to the trail head of the path she speaks of, “Baby steps will get us to the top of the mountain.”