Ray’s Daily
April 13, 2022
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
William Feather
Ray’s Daily first published on April 13, 2005
A friend and I were discussing someone who seems to be searching for happiness and never finding it. She seems so concerned about her job, relationships and playing the roles expected of her that she has little time to become herself. I don’t know why so many of us live with unhappiness or live dull, regimented lives, never experiencing the joys that are there for us to find. What is really sad is when we miss happiness because we did not recognize it when we saw it, or we did not take the time to enjoy it when we had the opportunity.
Here are a few investments we can make that can help make happiness easier to find.
1. Free your heart from hatred
2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live simply
4. Give more
5. Expect less
I know for many of us committing ourselves to the above is not easy, but I suggest that taking a few minutes each day to think about them can provide real results. Maybe the question we need to ask ourselves is, “do things really have to be this way?” The answer is often they do not, and once we know that we can unload a little each day. If we do I think we will find things a little brighter, life more enjoyable, and joy more frequent.
~~~
Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.
Jacques Prévert
~~~
Alice was to bake a cake for the church ladies’ group bake sale, but she forgot to do it until the last minute. She baked an angel food cake and when she took it from the oven, the center had dropped flat.
She said, “Oh dear, there’s no time to bake another cake.” So, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom … a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and covered it with icing.
The finished product looked beautiful, so she rushed it to the church.
Before she left the house, Alice had given her daughter some money and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it opened, and to buy that cake and bring it home. When the daughter arrived at the sale, the attractive cake had already been sold. Alice was beside herself.
The next day, Alice was invited to a friend’s home where two tables of bridge were to be played that afternoon. After the game, a fancy lunch was served, and to top it off, the cake in question was presented for dessert. Alice saw the cake, she started to get out of her chair to rush into the kitchen to tell her hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, one of the other ladies said, “What a beautiful cake!” Alice sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say …”Thank you, I baked it myself.”
~~~
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
Lao Tzu
~~~
A Methodist minister meets three Baptist deacons on the golf course and invites them to come to his church some Sunday. Not too many weeks thereafter and just as services are starting, they show up.
Attendance was good in the small Methodist church and there wasn’t a pew available. Several church members were already seated on folding chairs. When the minister, just starting the service, saw the three Baptist deacons enter, he leaned down from the pulpit and whispered to the nearest usher, “Please get three chairs for my Baptist friends in the back.”
The usher, hard of hearing, leaned closer and said, “I beg your pardon?”
“Get three chairs for my Baptist friends,” repeated the minister. The usher strained closer with a puzzled look still on his face.
Once more the minister tried, speaking slowly and distinctly. “Three chairs. For the Baptists,” he enunciated.
The usher’s face lit up in comprehension, and he turned to face the congregation. “All right, everybody,” he called out to the assembled worshipers. “Three cheers for the Baptists!”
~~~
Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.
Ernest Hemingway
~~~
A stockbroker was cold calling about a penny stock and found a taker. “I think this one will really move,” said the broker. “It’s only $1 a share.”
“Buy me 1,000 shares,” said the client.
The next day the stock was at $2. The client called the broker and said, “You were right. Give me 5,000 more shares.”
The next day the client looked in the paper and the stock was at $4.
The client ran to the phone and called the broker, “Get me 10,000 more shares.”
“Great!” said the broker.
The next day the client looked in the paper and the stock was at $9.
Seeing what a great profit he had in just a few days, the client ran to the phone and told the broker, “Sell all my shares!”
The broker asked, “To who? You were the only one buying that stock.”
~~~
“My mother always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said, ‘Just wait.'”
Judy Tenuta
~~~
Jill and Nina went to lecture on positive thinking. After the lecture was done, Nina said to Jill, “You know, I learned a lot from this. From now on, I am going to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. From now on, I am going to use the word IS instead of the word NOT.”
“You’re right Nina. I am going to quit making negative statements too.
I am going to speak positively from now on as well”, Jill said.
“Really Jill, like what?” asked Nina.
“Well,” Jill says, “I used to always say that my husband was not fit to live with the hogs. Now I am going to say he IS fit to live with them.”
~~~
The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.
John Quincy Adams
~~~
She said, now that they are retired, my mother and father are discussing all aspects of their future. “What will you do if I die before you do?” Dad asked Mom. After some thought, she said that she’d probably look for a house sharing situation with three other single or widowed women who might be a little younger than herself, since she is so active for her age. Then Mom asked Dad, “What will you do if I die first?” He replied, “Probably the same thing.”
~~~
After being advised by a store front investment counselor to invest my few measly savings in CD’s, does anyone know of a good music store that sells them cheap?
~~~
After joining the Navy, a guy undergoes a physical. During the exam, it was discovered that, due to a bum shoulder, he couldn’t fully extend his arms above his head. Perplexed, the doctor conferred with another physician.
“Let him pass,” said the second doctor. “I don’t see any problems, unless he has to surrender.”
~~~
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
Margaret Young
~~~
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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