Ray's Daily

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.

Dan Millman

We’ve talked a lot about happiness lately and yet it still eludes many of us. I wonder if some of us don’t recognize the opportunities to enjoy or days when they appear. I even wonder if some of us even really know what would make us happy. It seems like it is easy to fall into a routine that results in our expecting to just get through another day with little if any joy in the process. In my case I just don’t find focusing in on what is wrong in my life has much benefit if it keeps me from seeing what is right. If I can’t change a stressful situation I do my best to ignore it.

Our old friend Gretchen Rubin has spent the last few years focusing in on her won happiness, in fact the book she wrote last year “The Happiness Project” was a big time best seller. I have appreciated her effort and her willingness to share her thoughts. Here is something she posted on the net some time ago that I found interesting, I hope you will too.

In my study of happiness, I’ve labored to identify its fundamental principles. Because I get a tremendous kick out of the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhism (the Triple Refuge, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the eight auspicious symbols), I decided to dub these fundamental principles as my Eight Splendid Truths.

Each one of these truths sounds fairly obvious and straightforward, but each was the product of tremendous thought. Take the Second Splendid Truth—it’s hard to exaggerate the clarity I gained when I finally managed to put it into words. Here they are:

First Splendid Truth

To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

Second Splendid Truth

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

Third Splendid Truth

The days are long, but the years are short.

Fourth Splendid Truth

You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.

Fifth Splendid Truth

I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.

Sixth Splendid Truth

The only person I can change is myself.

Seventh Splendid Truth

Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and no one else can make me happy.

Eighth Splendid Truth

Now is now.

~~~

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

Omar Khayyam

~~~

** The Biggest Lies In The World **

It’s a good thing you came in today. It’s the last one we have.

You made it yourself? I would have never guessed.

Your hair looks just fine.

It’s delicious but I can’t eat another bit.

Go ahead and tell me, I won’t tell another soul.

The doctor will call you right back.

~~~

In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday.

~~~

A young girl who was writing a paper for school came to her father and asked, “Dad, what is the difference between anger and exasperation?” The father replied, “It is mostly a matter of degree. Let me show you what I mean.” With that the father went to the telephone an dialed a number at random. To the man who answered the phone, he said, “Hello, is Melvin there?” The man answered, “There is no one living here named Melvin. Why don’t you learn to look up numbers before you dial them?” “See,” said the father to his daughter. “That man was not a bit happy with our call.

He was probably very busy with some- thing and we annoyed him. Now watch….” The father dialed the number again. “Hello, is Melvin there?” asked the father. “Now look here!” came the heated reply. “You just called this number and I told you that there is no Melvin here!

You’ve got a lot of nerve calling again!” The receiver slammed down hard. The father turned to his daughter and said, “You see, that was anger. Now I’ll show you what exasperation means.” He dialed the same number, and when a violent voice roared, “Hello!” The father calmly said, “Hello, this is Melvin. Have there been any calls for me?”

~~~

Success is just a matter of luck, just ask any failure.

~~~

He said: Some people are extremely impressed when you tell them you’re a Navy SEAL.  Case in point:  My grandson’s pre-K class on Career Day.  I regaled them with stories of my exploits in the military.  After I finished, hands shot up into the air all over the classroom.  The kids were eager to ask questions.

“So,” asked one little girl, “can you balance a ball on the end of your nose?”

~~~

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

Paul Boese

~~~

The widow lay crying on her psychiatrist’s couch. “We were married twenty-five years before he died,” she said, dabbing away a tear. “Never had an argument in all those years.”

“Amazing,” said the doctor. “How did you do it?”

“I outweighed him by forty pounds and he was a coward.”

~~~

“A smile starts on the lips, A grin spreads to the eyes, A chuckle comes from the belly; But a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, Overflows, and bubbles all around.”

Carolyn Birmingham

~~~

A husband, the owner of a new car, was somewhat reluctant to allow his wife to drive his prize possession…even to the grocery store which was a few blocks from the house. After she insisted, he finally relented, cautioning her as she departed, “Remember, if you have an accident, the newspaper will print your age!”

~~~

We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them.

William Arthur Ward

~~~

Stay well, do good work, and have fun.

Ray Mitchell

Indianapolis, Indiana

Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.

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