Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Helen Keller
This is going to be a short week since in my country we celebrate our Thanksgiving Day this Thursday. I will be joining family and friends as we eat and celebrate our good fortune together and then I am going to give the Daily a day off on Friday so we will have a long weekend.
I was visiting with a friend last week and we talked about how sometimes our quick judgements result in our missing the opportunity to befriend someone worth knowing. I think too many of us are overly judgmental resulting in our sometimes isolating ourselves form the possibility of making a new friend. It is even worse when quick judgements result in our losing an old friend.
In the following piece author Dani DiPirro talks about the value acceptance can have on our lives. For many of us more acceptance and less rejection will enrich our daily lives.
Accept Yourself and Others Just As They Are With These 6 Strategies
When it comes to living a positive life, acceptance is key—particularly acceptance of others. We all have our moments when we struggle to accept others as they are (especially those closest to us), but most of us recognize that becoming more accepting of others is one way to make our relationships with others more positive. The more accepting we are, the more our relationships can flourish. And the more our relationships flourish, the more positive experiences we’ll have with others.
. There are many ways to become more accepting, but here are six things I’m going to start doing to increase acceptance in my life:
- Watch your thoughts. Think about what you’re thinking about. I often think things about other people, judging them, without even realizing it. I’m going to work on paying more attention to my thoughts and do my best to push them in a non-judgmental, more accepting direction.
- Look for the positive. Not accepting others is a result of seeing the negative in them. Instead of focusing on why someone is different, I’m going to focus on what’s good about that person and his/her choices and actions. My way is not always the best one.
- Avoid right/wrong dichotomies. It’s very tempting to see the world in black and white with a right and wrong way to do things, but that’s just not how it is. Things don’t have to be right or wrong if I choose to accept them as they are. I’m going to stop labeling my way as “right.”
- Stop judging yourself. Our judgments of others are often a result of our personal criticisms. If I stop putting pressure on myself to do things the “right” way, I’ll also stop putting pressure on others as well. Not judging myself or others is a crucial step to acceptance.
- Focus on the now. A lack of acceptance can generate from comparing things to the past. I’m not going to think about what happened before and try to live accordingly; I’m going to think about now. Comparing things to the past always hinders an acceptance of what is.
- Reverse the situation. I ask myself: What if someone were judging me and not accepting me? How would I feel? I’ll keep these questions in mind the next time I’m not accepting others. I will imagine someone constantly telling me to slow down (and how annoying that would be!).
It’s so easy to abstractly think of yourself as an accepting person, but when it comes to your daily interactions, really pay attention to them and ask yourself if you are accepting others as they are. Are you really accepting them? Are you really not thinking your way of doing things is the best way?
The more I use these six tactics in my life, the more I find myself being much more accepting of others. I’m more loving, more forgiving, more kind. I’ve discovered that the only way to live a positive and present life is to accept what is—something you certainly can’t do if you don’t accept others for who they are.
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One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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As the manager of our hospital’s softball team, I was responsible for returning equipment to the proper owners at the end of the season.
When I walked into the surgery department carrying a bat that belonged to one of the surgeons, I passed several patients and their families in a waiting area.
“Look, honey,” one man said to his wife. “Here comes your anesthesiologist.”
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A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
~~~
The speaker at my bank’s drive-through window had been broken for weeks, and we tellers had to resort to miming or writing notes to communicate with our frustrated customers. One day a sweet elderly lady whom I would see every week pulled up to the window, leaned out, and smacked the glass in front of my face. “I hope this is bulletproof,” she yelled.
There had just been a robbery at another bank nearby, so I was touched by her concern. “It is,” I yelled back.
“Good,” she continued, “because someone is going to shoot you if you don’t get that speaker fixed!”
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Can you have only one plural?
~~~
While waiting at the veterinarian’s office, I overheard two women chatting about their dogs.
“What’s your dog’s name?” asked the first woman.
“Well, we used to call her Pork Chop,” answered the second lady. “But after the vet bills we’ve had for her, we now call her Filet Mignon.”
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The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to go out and buy a replacement.
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A woman went into a hardware store to purchase a bale of peat moss. She gave a personal check in payment and said to the clerk, “I suppose you will want some identification.”
He replied, without hesitation, “No ma’am, that won’t be necessary.”
“How come?” asked the woman.
“Crooks don’t buy peat moss.” answered the clerk.
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If Walmart is lowering prices every day, how come nothing is free yet?
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David and Bernice had just given their teenage daughter family-car privileges. On Saturday night she returned home very late from a party.
The next morning her father went out to the driveway to get the newspaper and came back into the house frowning. At 11:30am the girl sleepily walked into the kitchen, and her father asked her, “Sweetheart, what time did you get in last night?”
“Not too late, Dad.” she replied nervously.
Dead-panned, her father said, “Then, my precious one, I’ll have to talk with the paperboy about putting my paper under the front tire of the car.”
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There is an ancient Jewish proverb that says that “A Jewish wife will forgive and forget,
But she’ll never forget what she forgave.”
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“I see you were last employed by a Psychiatrist,” says the employer to the applicant. “Why did you leave?”
“Well,” she replied…. “I just couldn’t win. If I was late to work, I was hostile. If I was early, I had an anxiety complex. If I was on time, I was compulsive!”
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True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
Baltasar Gracian
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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.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than fifteen years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@gmail.com. Back issues are posted at https://raykiwsp.wordpress.com/ currently there are more than 2000 readers from around the world.
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