Ray’s Daily
December 22, 2020
A sense of interconnectedness with others has been shown to fortify feelings of happiness.
Will Bowen
During these holidays it is a good time to share with others how much they are appreciated. Here is an abridged story that reminds us of the importance of maintaing positive relationships.
Are you a bucket filler or a dipper?
You have no doubt heard of the cup that overflowed. This is a story of a bucket that is like the cup, only larger, it is an invisible bucket. Everyone has one. It determines how we feel about ourselves, about others, and how we get along with people. Have you ever experienced a series of very favourable things which made you want to be good to people for a week? At that time, your bucket was full.
A bucket can be filled by a lot of things that happen. When a person speaks to you, recognizing you as a human being, your bucket is filled a little and even more if he calls you by name, especially if it is the name you like to be called.
If he compliments you on your dress or on a job well done, the level in your bucket goes up still higher. There must be a million ways to raise the level in another’s bucket. Writing a friendly letter, remembering something that is special to him, knowing the names of his children, expressing sympathy for his loss, giving him a hand when his work is heavy, taking time for conversation, or, perhaps more important, listening to him.
When one’s bucket is full of this emotional support, one can express warmth and friendliness to people. But, remember, this is a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other people have dippers and they can get their dippers in your bucket. This, too, can be done in a million ways.
Let’s say I am at a dinner and inadvertently upset a glass of thick, sticky chocolate milk that spills over the table cloth. I am embarrassed. Mr bright eyes sitting across the table says, ‘You upset that glass of chocolate milk.’ I made a mistake, I know I did, and then he told me about it! He got his dipper in my bucket! Think of the times a person makes a mistake, feels terrible about it, only to have someone tell him about the known mistake. I call this ‘Red pencil’ mentality!
The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper. Everyone has both. The unyielding secret of the bucket and the dipper is that when you fill another’s bucket it does not take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another’s, and, on the other hand, when we dip into another’s bucket we do not fill our own … we lose a little.
For a variety of reasons, people hesitate filling the bucket of another and consequently do not experience the fun, joy, happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction connected with making another person happy. Some reasons for this hesitancy are that people think it sounds ‘false,’ or the other person will be suspicious of the motive, or it is ‘brown-nosing.’
Therefore, let us put aside our dipper and resolve to touch someone’s life in order to fill their bucket.
Author Unknown
~~~
Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses
Ann Landers
~~~
Christmas In Florida
Twas A Florida Night Before Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town, No rose were frozen – no snow fluttered down.
No children in flannels were tucked into bed, They all wore shortie pajamas instead.
To find wreaths of holly was not very hard, For holly wreaths grow in most every back yard.
In front of the house were Daddy and Mom Decorating the Crotons and Coconut Palm.
The sleeping kiddies were dreaming with glee, Hoping to find water skis under their tree.
They all knew that Santa was well on his way, In a read and white sports car, instead of a sleigh,
He whizzed up the highway and zoomed up the road, In a snappy convertible delivering his load.
And soon he arrived and started his work, For he hadn’t a moment to linger of shirk.
As he jumped from the car he gave a deep chuckle, He was dressed in Bermudas, with Ivy League buckle,
There weren’t any chimneys, but that caused no gloom, For Santa came in through the Florida room.
He stopped at each house, stayed only a minute, Emptying the bag ‘o toys he had in it, Before he departed, he treated himself, To a big glass of Orange Juice left on the shelf.
He turned with a bounce and leaped in the car, Remembering he still had to go very far.
Then turning the key and lighting the dash, Up Interstate ninety-five he went like a flash,
But we heard him exclaim as he went on his way, “Merry Christmas, Y’All ~ I wish I could stay.”
~~~
“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
James Oppenheim
~~~
She said:
Men are great! Every woman should own one!!!
Men are just boys in better bodies!
Men are just like computers, and a smart woman keeps a backup.
Men are like bras: they offer light, medium and complete support.
~~~
I earn a seven-figure salary. Unfortunately, there’s a decimal point involved.
~~~
An Irishman is walking along the beach one day, and he sees a bottle laying in the sand. He picks it up and starts to brush it off, and out pops a genie.
The genie says, “Since you have freed me from the bottle, I will grant you three wishes.”
The Irishman thinks for a moment and says, “I’m feeling a might thirsty, I think I’ll be wishing for a pint of stout.”
POOF! There is a pint of stout in his hand. He drinks it down, and starts to throw the bottle, when the genie says, “I’d look at that bottle again before I threw it if I were you.”
So he looks at the bottle, and it is magically filling back up with stout.
The genie told him, “That is a magic bottle, and it will always fill back up after you finish it.”
The genie then asked, “What other two wishes can I grant for you?”
The Irishman looks at the bottle in his hand and says, “I’ll be taking two more of these.”
~~~
The only people to get even with are those who have helped you.
~~~
An old lady had always wanted to travel abroad. Now that she was getting on in years, she thought she would really like to do so before she died.
Until then, she’d never even been out of the country. So she began by going in person to the Passport Office and asking how long it would take to have one issued.
“You must take the loyalty oath first,” responded the passport clerk. “Raise your right hand, please.”
The old gal raised her right hand.
“Do you swear to defend the Constitution of the United States against all its enemies, domestic or foreign?” was the first question.
The little old lady’s face paled and her voice trembled as she asked in a small voice, “Uhhh . . . all by myself?”
~~~
When you cultivate quality relationships, not only do you feel better and help your friends feel better, but you contribute to an increase of joy, love, and peace in the world.
Tara Bianca
~~~
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
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