Ray’s Daily
June 29, 2020
“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
Here we go again, a new week. Hat surprises me these days is that my wife and me are staying pretty happy. We are sequestered, the outside world is suffering from the virus and depression. I do hear a lot about the good things some peopleare doing for others and I applaud their efforts.
As you know Nancy and I live in a senior residential facility that includes folks even more than a hundred years old. The thing that I like most about so many of my neighbors is how upbeat they are. Their positive attitudes are contagious.
I always have, and hope I always will chose happiness and avoid the doldrums that come from giving up on life. I may not be as healthy as I once was, certainly I am not as spry, but I can still do enough to keep me happily occupied, so my life is good. I hope yours is as well.
Here is a story that reminds me of some of the good people I know, I hope you enjoy it.
Each day is a gift
A 92-year-old delicate but well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and his face shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.
‘I love it,’ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
‘Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’
‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied.
‘Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged … it’s how I arrange my mind.
I already decided to love it. ‘It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.’
‘Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away. Just for this time in my life.’
‘Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in.’
‘So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.’
Remember these five simple rules to be happy:
- Free your heart from hatred
- Free your mind from worries
- Live simply
- Give more
- Expect less
Author Unknown
~~~
“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”
Robert Browning
~~~
While leading the Friday evening services, the Rabbi noticed a member of the congregation, Bernie, walk in with a St. Bernard dog. The Rabbi, horrified, asked the Cantor to continue the service and went to talk to Bernie.
Rabbi: “What are doing here with a dog?”
Bernie: “The dog came here to pray.”
“Oh, come on.” says the Rabbi.
“YES!” says Bernie.
Rabbi: “I don’t believe you. You are just fooling around; that’s not a proper thing to do in temple.”
Bernie: “Its true..!”
“Ok”, says the Rabbi (thinking he would call Bernie’s bluff), “then show me what the dog can do.”
“OK” says Bernie nodding to the dog. The dog proceeds to open up the barrel under his neck and removes a yarmulke, a tallis (puts them on his head) and prayer book and actually starts saying prayers in Hebrew! The Rabbi is so shocked he listens for a full 15 minutes.
When the Rabbi regains his composure, he is so impressed with the quality of the praying he says to Bernie. “Do you think your dog would consider going to rabbinical school????”
Bernie, throwing up his hands in disgust says, “YOU TALK TO HIM! He wants to be a doctor!”
~~~
“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
George Santayana
~~~
According to an abcnews.com feature story, nearly eight in 10 people polled said lack of respect and courtesy is a serious national problem, and six in 10 said the problem is getting worse.
Symptoms cited are talking loudly on cell phones in public; driving obnoxiously; leaving people on hold; cursing and littering.
The remaining respondents were quoted as saying, “Here’s a quarter, go call someone who gives a crap.”
~~~
“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.”
Chuck Reid
~~~
The man was in no shape to drive, so he wisely left his car parked and walked home. As he was walking unsteadily along, he was stopped by a policeman.
“What are you doing out here at 2 A.M.?” asked the officer.
“I’m going to a lecture.”
“And who is going to give a lecture at this hour?” the cop asked.
“My wife.”
~~~
“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?”
Laurence J. Peter
~~~
A high-school geometry teacher started one lesson on triangles by reading a theorem. “If an angle is an exterior angle of a triangle, then its measure is greater than the measure of either of its corresponding remote interior angles.”
He noticed that one student wasn’t taking notes and asked him why.
“Well,” he replied sincerely, “I’m waiting until you start speaking English.”
~~~
“Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.”
Abraham Lincoln
~~~
This fellow was being sold a very cheap suit.
“But the left arm is a lot longer than the right arm,” he complained.
“That’s why the suit is such a bargain,” the sales clerk explained. “Just cock your left shoulder up a little, like this, and tuck this left lapel under your chin a bit, like this.”
“But the right leg is way too short,” argued the customer.
“No problem,” the sales clerk answered. “Just keep your right knee bent a little at all times, walk like this, and no one will notice. That’s why this suit is only thirty dollars.”
Finally, the fellow bought the suit, cocked his left shoulder into the air, tucked the suit’s left lapel under his chin, bent his right knee, and limped out of the store toward his car.
Two doctors happened along and noticed him.
“Good heavens,” the first doctor said to the second, “look at that poor crippled fellow.”
“Yeah,” answered the second doctor. “But doesn’t that suit fit great?”
~~~
“In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage – so long are you young. When the wires are all down and our heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.”
Douglas MacArthur
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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Comments on: "Happy Aging" (1)
That’s a wonderful quote