Ray’s Daily
April 1, 2021
“Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Every day is your birthday.”
Dalai Lama
I learned the other day that my senior living facility is going to begin a series of new activities while opening up our community. I am glad that after a year we will have a fresh start as we establish a new normal. Of course it is up to us individually to take advantage of what is offered. We can leave the doldrums behind if we are ready to begin anew.
Here is an article on how we can make a fresh start.
The Magic of a Fresh Start
By Leo Babauta
One of the biggest obstacles to sticking with a habit change, a new system, a goal or long-term project … is that we get disrupted. Something interrupts our progress — we skip a workout day or two — and then some programming in our brains turns that into a message of how we’re not good enough, we can’t do it, we should just give up.
This stops so many people from making long-term progress. It stops us from simply starting again. This is because most of us don’t realize the power and magic of a Fresh Start.
A Fresh Start is when we get to start anew, with a blank slate. It’s waking up to a brand new morning, with a day we get to use however we want. When we miss a few days of meditation, or eat junk for a week because of various celebrations, or fall off from writing our book … instead of making that to mean that this whole thing is a waste of time or that we somehow suck … we can look at it as a Fresh Start.
I’m not simply reframing things to “be positive.” There’s a lot of power available to us in a Fresh Start that we miss out on. A Fresh Start is magical:
- We can see the habit or project with fresh eyes, as if we’d never seen it before, and bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to what we’re doing
- There’s a sacredness to letting everything go from the past and just showing up in a new moment
- We can learn something from the past failure or disruption, and use this new start as a way to get better at that difficulty, armed with this new information, so that every Fresh Start becomes a new opportunity to learn, grow, get better at something
- We get to reinvent ourselves, reinvent what we’re taking on, reinvent what we want to make our lives to be
- We can recommit, and remind ourselves of why we’re committed to this
This is all missed when we ignore the magic and power of a Fresh Start! The beautiful thing is that a Fresh Start is available to us not only when we get disrupted or stumble … but in every moment. Every day. Every new meditation or workout or work session. Every new meeting with someone, every new conversation.
~~~
“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So get on your way!”
Dr. Seuss
~~~
The Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, “Thou shall not take the covers off the neighbor’s wife.”
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Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.
~~~
Tom and Darryl were out hunting deer. Tom asked, “Did you see that?”
“No,” Darryl replies.
“Well, a bald eagle just flew overhead.”
“Oh,” responded Darryl.
A couple of minutes later, Tom said, “Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“Are you blind? There was a big, black bear walking on that hill, over there.”
“Oh.”
A few minutes later Tom again said, “Did you see that?”
By now, Darryl is getting aggravated, so he says, “Yes, I did!”
And Tom says: “Then why did you step in it?”
~~~
The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship are “I apologize” and “You are right.”
~~~
He said:
On my four-year-old daughter’s first trip to Disneyland, she couldn’t wait to get on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. As the car zoomed through the crazy rooms, into the path of a speeding train, and through walls that fell away at the last second, she clutched the little steering wheel in front of her.
When the ride was over, she said to me a little shakily, “Next time, you drive. I didn’t know where I was going.”
~~~
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
Reginald B. Mansell
~~~
Visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral on a tour of New York City, my daughter and her children were awed by the sight. The kids were especially curious about the votive candles, so my daughter asked if they’d each like to light one. She explained that is it customary to say a prayer of petition or thanks, and she was careful to tell them that these are not like birthday candles.
“Do you have any questions?” she asked.
“No,” said the five-year-old, “but if there’s a pony outside, it’s mine.”
~~~
“I had a friend who was a clown. When he died, all his friends went to the funeral in one car.”
Steven Wright
~~~
Mrs. Smith pulled Mrs. Jones out of earshot of the porch, where Mrs. Jones’ lovely young daughter, Linda, sat. “It is really none of my business,” whispered Mrs. Smith, “but have you noticed what your daughter is doing?”
“Why, no. Is she up to anything special?”
Mrs. Smith leaned closer. “Haven’t you noticed? She has started knitting tiny garments!”
Mrs. Jones’ troubled brow cleared. “Well, thank goodness,” she said smiling, “at last she has taken an interest in something besides running around with boys.”
~~~
Luck is a lazy person’s estimate of a worker’s success.
~~~
My wife called me from her car after she had arrived at an appointment. I could tell from her voice that she was getting frustrated. Finally, she said, “I know I had my cell phone with me and now, I can’t find it!”
I replied, “Aren’t you talking on it?”
There was a solid period of stunned silence as the reality of the situation sank in, followed by, “You are not going to tell anybody about this!”
~~~
“It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
~~~
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 twenty 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@comcast.net. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are hundreds of readers from around the world.
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