Category: This and that

This post is for people who will never give it a LIKE, a 👍, a ♥, a 😂, a 😲, or a COMMENT 📝 …

Yet these are among the MOST Important PEOPLE IN MY LIFE!

They have made an impact on me in one way or another in a significant way. Some of them left us many years ago, while others have gone more recently. Each of them has left valuable life lessons for me which I will never forget.

None of them are with us today to hear what I have to say, which is that since I get tired of counting numbers for everyday tasks, I have instead come up with a way to REPLACE NUMBERS with the NAMES of people I want to remember and who are important to me.

For this particular version of my NAME GAME (I have three), these are the people from 1 to 21 👇

Buddy McBride
Ronnie Werick
Abigail Vigil

Tim Anderson
Chris Mullins
Mark Skotchdopole
Grant Bauer
CJ Coffin

Alan Lujan
Ray Griego
J J  McBride

Abel I. Vigil Sr.
Maximiliano McBride Sr.
Beatrice Vigil
Leonore McBride

Betty Mott
Bobby McBride

Johnny Montes de Oca
Jill McBride

Sneaky
Rascal

As I go through their names daily for so many things for which I would normally use numbers, now instead I think of them and send a little prayer to them and their loved ones.

While I am sad none of these people are any longer with us, I am comforted in knowing that all I have to do is to think of any of them, and in an instant, they are there with me. For the great majority of them, I remember the way they walked, the way they talked and their general demeanor.

If I have a question or a concern, I can imagine pretty much what advice or direction each of them might give me, with the exception of Sneaky and Rascal who likely would just sit there and look at me like I was stupid, or more likely, come sit beside me to comfort me.

It is common for us to mourn those who are gone, and I suppose the pain we feel should be felt, it’s real and heartfelt. For us to long for one more conversation, or one more hug, or one more kiss from those who have meant so much to us, is probably good for us as we process their loss.

Yet, it is nice to know that they are only a thought 💭 away… 😉

Who are those people who have made the greatest impact on your life?

Are they still around to call and say, “Whassup”, or have they passed on to that uncertainty which eventually awaits us all? 🤔 📝

∞ Rob McBride ∞
4 Jan 2024

In Golf, and in Life*:

As long as we keep swinging, we keep advancing.

Each day is like starting a brand new game at even par.

Even if yesterday was outstanding, today could be terrible.

A lapse in attention can make things go from bad to worse in a heartbeat.

Even though yesterday brought disaster, glory could be just around the corner.

No matter how bad the hole was that we just played, the next one can be better.

No matter how good you played the last hole, the next one can be horrendous.

Each new game we play can be similar, yet very different from the last.

Each day gives us an opportunity to take a new swing at the ball.

Focus and attention are paramount to get a good score.

If we don’t swing at the ball, we will never hit it.

When you hit a nice shot, it always feels great.

If we don’t look for a lost ball, we will not find it.

We don’t always find lost balls even if we look hard.

It’s easier to tell others what to do, than to do it ourselves.

Watching it on television isn’t the same as doing it in person.

After the most terrible shot can a come a wonderful one, and vice-versa.

One can be changed by a matter of inches, the other in a matter of minutes.

We need to take it one stroke at a time and trust that the map we have of the terrain is accurate.

When we take our eye off the ball it’s easy to lose it. Sometimes we find it, sometimes we never do.

Finding a lost ball is a lot like trying to find a lost purpose, sometimes it takes a lot of time and energy.

Noise and commotion around us can negatively affect our performance even when we try to block it out.

Lifting our gaze to our objective too soon can cause us to create a huge divot and muff forward only a few inches.

Standing up on the tee box generally gives us a good view of what we need to accomplish, but we can’t always see every single objective from the get go.

Some days we are able to get through with relatively few strokes, while on others we need to take the maximum allowable, or at times just pick up our ball and go home, wondering if we will ever go out again.

If we don’t go out to the course, we don’t score.

∞ Rob McBride ∞
15 Sep 2022

• Dedicated to my dear Daddy who loved to play all games.

On this exact date, and at about the same time I write this, my father passed away 10 years ago. Though it was heartbreaking for all of us who knew him, I was fortunate enough to be there with him at his side, or at least in the same room, when it happened. Far from the dramatic scenes we see on television or imagine in our minds of someone desperately gasping for their last breath, this was far from the case with my Daddy. He was definitely a class act to the end.

After I woke that morning, my sister Rori who had been up all night by his side asked me if I could watch him while she and others went to get something to eat, green chile breakfast burritos, if I recall correctly. I took over my watch, and after sharing some time with him by his side for a bit, I decided to take a new computer I had recently purchased for a test drive by writing a poem on it for him. This is what I wrote:

Father to the Child

So it was in the beginning
So also will it be in the end

We begin with a deep breath
And so too it will be upon our death

A babe cared for and fed
So also will it be upon our deathbed

We begin as father to the child
Taking care of them all the while

And though we are not sure if we can
Eventually we become father to the man

15 Sep 2012
∞ RHM² ∞

As I wrote these words they literally came to pass, as did he.

When Rori came back, I looked up and she as she came into the room immediately went to see my dad. She looked at me sitting there on the floor and said, “Robbie, he’s not breathing.”

I jumped up and went over to him only to find that she was right! He had passed away while I was sitting there typing away, unaware anything was amiss. As I write these words, I now chuckle to myself because this exact morning as I was playing golf on a golf course I’ve designed, I believe my father played a little trick on me by taking my ball and hiding it. His little trick encourages me to write something I have thinking about recently regarding the similarities between life and golf which I will publish separately and dedicate to his memory since he loved the game. In fact, he loved all games!

Ten years ago, my good friend Walter Elliott correctly predicted my rebirth after my father’s passing. Today I realize more than ever that my Daddy never went anywhere, he continues to be by my side with every step I take and every shot I make.

15 Sep 2022
∞ Rob McBride ∞

A new day comes with the dawn of the early morning sun
Then it disappears silently as dusk sneaks upon us

A seed germinates in the moisture and the warmth of the earth
Bringing forth into the world a fabulous new sprout

A flower spreads its delicate petals towards the sky
Then sheds them randomly as they mature

A new babe is born from the womb of his mother
Starting the clock on his non-stop trek

The circle of life is never-ending

It converts what seems to be temporary
Into a wondrous magical eternity

∞ Rob McBride ∞
22 Sep 2019

JABBERWOCKY

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought —
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

– Lewis Carroll
(Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

Walking are your footprints
the road, and nothing more;
walking there is no road,
the road is made as we walk.

As we walk, the road is made
and looking back
we see the road which will
never again be traveled.

Walking there is no road
rather a wake in the ocean.

~ Antonio Machado ~

– Traducido por Rob McBride

Every day is one day less
every night one night more
the heart asks why we have come
if everything is so light and brief

all of the beaches are beaches except
when they are invaded by the ocean
and the four seasons don’t make noise
in reality’s corners

all of the gods are gods of nothing
who are left without eternity
meanwhile with the air fight
the birds that learn to fly

all of the deaths are the deaths of another
and we forget them so as not to cry
but also there are those who /innocent/
with bare feet cross the threshold

every day is one day less
every night one night more
but if roses are still in view
life is a party to keep

– Mario Benedetti