Ray’s Daily
November 23, 2021
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder
Ray’s Daily first published on November 23, 2010
As I mentioned we in the United States set aside one day a year to express thanks for all we have. The day after tomorrow is that Thanksgiving Day. Unfortunately many will not stop to reflect on what they have and to be grateful. In fact millions will be out shopping in order to buy more stuff to add to their material possessions in anticipation of the Christmas Gift giving season. Of course I am like everyone else in so far as the Christmas Season provides me and others the opportunity to be with friends and loved ones.
But for now, Thanksgiving means that I get to recognize all that I have, not measured by material goods but by my good fortune. My friends, my family, my health, my freedom and my unlimited opportunities all provide me with more than enough to live a happy life. You know the key to happiness is often the ability to see what is enough and what is too much. When we have enough we can concentrate on enjoying all we do have and the freedom to do more rather than have more. A few weeks ago a friend from my distant past sent me an excellent piece on the value of embracing the concept of enough. Here is what he sent in pat.
Recently I overheard a Father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure of her plane. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the Father said, ‘I love you, and I wish you enough.’
The daughter replied, ‘Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Dad.’
They kissed and the daughter left. The Father walked over to the window where I was seated. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, ‘Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?’
‘Yes, I have,’ I replied. ‘Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?
‘I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is – the next trip back will be for my funeral,’ he said.
‘When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, ‘I wish you enough.’ May I ask what that means?’
He began to smile. ‘That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone…’ He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. ‘When we said, ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.’ Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
He then began to cry and walked away.
How sad it is that so many of us fail to appreciate the fact that we really have enough and that what we do have provides us every reason to celebrate our good fortune.
~~~
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
~~~
A distinguished rabbi and a friend were playing golf. It was a very close match, and at the last hole the two were only one stroke apart. The rabbi teed up, addressed the ball, and swung his driver with great force…slicing the ball deep into the woods.
The rabbi glared, and bit his lip while his face turned crimson, but said nothing. His opponent looked at him for a moment and then remarked, “Rabbi, that is the most profane silence I have ever heard.”
~~~
He said, “My father is so old that when he was in school, history was called current affairs.”
~~~
The blonde had been married about a year when one day she came running up to her husband jumping for joy. Not knowing how to react, the husband started jumping up and down along with her.
“Why are we so happy?” he asked.
“Honey, I have some really great news for you!” She said. “Great!” he said, “Tell me what you’re so happy about.” She stopped jumping and was breathless from all the jumping up and down. “I’m pregnant!” she gasped.
The husband was ecstatic as they had been trying for awhile. He grabbed her, kissed her, and started telling her how wonderful it as, and that he couldn’t be happier.
Then she said “Oh, honey there’s more!”
“What do you mean more?” he asked.
“Well we are not having just one baby, we are going to have TWINS!”
Amazed at how she could know so soon after getting pregnant, he asked her how she knew. “It was easy” she said, “I went to the pharmacy and bought the 2-pack home pregnancy test kit and both tests came out positive!”
~~~
Waiter: Would you like your coffee black?
Customer: What other colors do you have?
~~~
A wee guy was sitting at a bar staring at his drink for ages. Suddenly, a big biker came along, snatched his glass, guzzled down the contents and laughed, “Hah! So what you gonna do about that, little man?”
“Nothing,” sighed the little guy despondently. “You see, today has been the worst day of my life. This morning I overslept and was late for an important meeting. My boss was furious and so he sacked me. I cleared my desk, went to my car, only to discover that it wasn’t there – somebody had stolen it. So I got a taxi home, but when it came to paying the driver I realized I’d forgotten my wallet. I then went into my house and I found my wife in bed with the gardener. So I left home and came to this bar. And just when I was thinking about ending it all, you came along and drank my poison…”
~~~
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
Moshe Dayan
~~~
It takes a really tall tale to win the annual Burlington, Wis., Liars Club Contest. So tip your hat to Gordon Zwicky, because he’s a worthy champion. A neighbor, said Zwicky, told him and his wife Dorothy that they’d be fine as long as they paid attention to the road signs along the way. But they’d driven just 30 miles when they saw one that read, “Clean Restrooms Ahead.”
Two months later, they arrived in Florida exhausted, having used up 86 bottles of Windex, 267 rolls of paper towels, and three cases of toilet-bowl cleaner.
Total restrooms cleaned: 450.
~~~
Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.
If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey
~~~
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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