Ray’s Daily
September 24, 2020
“A friend is what the heart needs all the time.”
Henry Van Dyke
I have learned over the past few years to really appreciate what others do to make my life a little more pleasant. Often it is just a greeting offered with a smile from a passing resident. Sometimes it is a personal e-mail from a friend. Yesterday it was the housekeeper who cleans my apartment each week who said “let me know if there is anything more I can do for you.”
I think too often we do not value what we are given by others. It is when we learn to appreciate the offering of goodwill and friendship as much as the gift itself that that we will find more happiness. Here is a story about the true value of what we are given.
Gifts from the heart
According to legend, a young man while roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey he presented the water to the old man who took a deep drink, smiled warmly and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart.
Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the old leather container. The student challenged his teacher: ‘Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?’
The teacher replied, ‘You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of loving-kindness and nothing could be sweeter. Heartfelt gifts deserve the return gift of gratitude.’
I think we understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of love from young children. Whether it’s a ceramic tray or a macaroni bracelet, the natural and proper response is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift.
Gratitude doesn’t always come naturally. Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given rather than the feeling embodied in it.
We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.
Written by Michael Josephson
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“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
Cynthia Ozick
~~~
A blonde was summoned to court to appear as a witness in a lawsuit. The prosecutor opened his questioning with, “Where were you the night of August 24th?”
“Objection!” said the defense attorney. “Irrelevant!”
“Oh, that’s okay,” said the blonde from the witness stand. “I don’t mind answering the question.”
“I object!” the defense said again.
“No, really,” said the blonde. “I’ll answer.”
The judge ruled: “If the witness insists on answering, there is no reason for the defense to object.”
So the prosecutor repeated the question: “Where were you the night of August 24th?”
The blonde replied brightly, “I don’t know!”
~~~
He said: I live in California, and my watch is three hours fast, I can’t fix it, so I’m moving to New York.
~~~
I remember one time when I was home visiting my folks. My mom asked me to set the table for dinner. I opened the refrigerator and taped to the inside of the door was a risqué picture of a lovely, slender, perfectly built, but scantily-clad young woman. “Mom, what’s this?” I asked.
“Oh, I put that up there to remind me not to overeat,” she answered.
“Is it working?” I asked.
“Yes and no,” she explained. “I’ve lost 15 pounds, but your dad has gained 20!”
~~~
Success is a journey, not a destination.
Ben Sweetland
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Five Jewish men who influenced the history of Western civilization.
Moses said the law is everything.
Jesus said love is everything.
Marx said capital is everything.
Freud said sex is everything.
Einstein said everything is relative.
~~~
If you spread out all the sand in North Africa, it would cover the Sahara Desert.
~~~
There were two rednecks walking toward each other down the street. One of them was carrying a sack. When they met up, the other redneck asked, “Whatcha got in that there sack?”
The redneck with the sack replied, “Just some chickens.” The other redneck said, “If I guess how many chickens are in that there sack, can I have one?”
The redneck with he sack answered, “I’ll give ya both of them if you get it right.”
So, the other redneck thought and thought, and he finally said, “Five?”
~~~
Ask yourself: Have you been kind today?
Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.
Annie Lennox
~~~
The passengers on a cruise ship were fascinated by the sight of a bedraggled, bearded man on a small island. The ship passed slowly by as he desperately shouted and waved his arms.
“Who is that person on the island?” one of the passengers asked a ship’s officer.
“I have no idea,” mused the officer “but every year when we pass that island he goes crazy.”
~~~
A seminar on time travel will be held two weeks ago.
~~~
A plane took off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and therefore we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Please sit back and relax… OH MY GOD!”
After a moment of silence, the captain came back on the intercom and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier, but while I was talking, the flight-attendant brought me a cup of hot coffee and spilled it in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!”
A passenger in Coach piped up, “That’s nothing… you should see the back of mine!”
~~~
Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.
Harold Coffin
~~~
This small skinny dude walks up to the bar and starts to sit on a bar stool, and a big dude on the next stool says, “That seat’s taken!”
The little dude sits down anyway.
The big dude grabs him and whacks him several times with the back of his hand and tells the bartender, “When he wakes up, tell him that was Judo from Japan.”
Next day the little dude returns, before the big dude gets a chance to hit him, he hits the big dude several times and the big dude falls to the floor. The little dude tells the bartender, “Tell that sucker when he wakes up, that was a Monkey Wrench from Sears.”
~~~
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
Eckhart Tolle
~~~
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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