
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
John Barrymore
I don’t dwell much on my age, it seems like I was older when I was younger and younger now that I am older. What a wonderful discovery it was for me when I realized that the time that has gone by has led me to a place where I can find more than I had ever hoped for just around the corner. I feel sorry for those who have chosen to just age and retreat…
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Added by Ray on May 29, 2009 at 12:15pm —
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I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.
Shirley MacLaine
I sometimes get concerned that far too many of us have lost the ability to have fun. I pity those who take life so seriously that they never allow themselves the opportunity to really play, to be silly, and to do outrageous things. We owe it to ourselves to find…
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Added by Ray on May 28, 2009 at 9:51am —
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Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.
W. B. Yeats
I, like every other grandparent, know that our grandchildren are the brightest, most attractive and highly proficient kids ever. We just sometimes wish that their parents could walk on water like they do. So OK, we might be a little prejudiced and possibly only see them at their best. But in spite of my bias I was objectively proud of two of…
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Added by Ray on May 27, 2009 at 8:07am —
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“It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish.”
Robert Herrick
It seems like more and more my conversations with friends revolve around life after the big recession. As you know my hope is that we will have learned that we have more that can make us happy than we realize and that in fact many of…
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Added by Ray on May 26, 2009 at 8:29am —
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The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
Henry Ward Beecher
Those of us in the United States are about to embark on our annual Memorial Day long weekend. Since it will be a national holiday on Monday there will not be another Daily until Tuesday.
While our country…
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Added by Ray on May 22, 2009 at 7:39am —
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Here's a test to see if your mission in life is finished - if you're still alive, it's not.
A.W. Tozer
I just got back from my weekly Kiwanis meeting and have to leave shortly for a downtown meeting. I’ll be back mid-afternoon just in time for a nap. So no excuses, just not enough energy for a new Daily so here is an old one.
Ray’s Daily
May 21, 2003
An elderly Cherokee Native…
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Added by Ray on May 21, 2009 at 9:32am —
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“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
One of the speakers at my grandson’s high school graduation ceremony said “Giving a speech is like making a mini skirt; it should be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to keep people interested.” I plan on using the advice when I open a televised local session that is part of the Foreign Policy…
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Added by Ray on May 20, 2009 at 7:52am —
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"We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. Our attitude is everything."
Charles Swindoll
We’ve talked a lot lately about making the choices that will allow us to find happiness even during these trying times. Rather than me going on and on again on the subject I’ll just share with you the advice I recently picked up from someone…
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Added by Ray on May 19, 2009 at 9:48am —
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The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederick Buechner:
It seems like I have been making a lot of trips back into the past lately, sharing the good feelings that I had for simpler days, a time when even just a neighborhood was a community. Many of the periods in the past were filled with…
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Added by Ray on May 15, 2009 at 8:49am —
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It is hard work to be good when you are very little and very hungry, and have many sticks to beat you, and no mother's lips to kiss you.
Ouida
I have a full day tomorrow and will be leaving for a Kiwanis meeting at 6:30 AM and as soon as it adjourns at 8:30 AM I’ll rush downtown to work with the Salvation Army at their downtown “Eat Outside the Box” picnic. We will be selling food and t-shirts with the proceeds used to feed…
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Added by Ray on May 13, 2009 at 5:24pm —
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"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
Author Unknown
Someone said once “Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you're going to miss in the years ahead.” I don’t know who said it or when they said it all I know is that I wish I would have understood their value years ago.
Yesterday we were visited by two sisters that that were part of a family…
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Added by Ray on May 13, 2009 at 8:22am —
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For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress, and as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It seems to me that as we move through our golden years into our platinum years we reach one or more forks in the road. Some just look for the easiest path and end up wherever that may lead, in other words they just go with the flow and…
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Added by Ray on May 12, 2009 at 10:24am —
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“Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.”
Author Unknown
I hope your weekend was as good as mine. Saturday I worked the volunteer registration desk for my…
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Added by Ray on May 11, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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'I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
Groucho Marx
I met with a friend yesterday who heads an organization that does some amazing things with children and adults, helping them to see alternatives to conflict. We talked about the changes going on in…
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Added by Ray on May 8, 2009 at 8:17am —
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I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself.
And so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.
Shirley MacLaine
The other day I shared with you the fact that I regretted that a valued acquaintance in Florida had just passed away. Here is a message I just got from his son:
I wanted to let you know that my father passed away on Friday the first of May. He fought…
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Added by Ray on May 7, 2009 at 8:42am —
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The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”
Those of you have been reading the Daily for awhile have often heard me report that it seems that when I expect good things to happen they do. Lately I would add that if you believe good things can happen you can get about the business of proving yourself right. It seems that a lot of folks these days feel that since things probably…
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Added by Ray on May 6, 2009 at 5:46am —
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“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder
Ray left at 6:30 this morning and said he would not be back and told me to send you one of his old Daily’s. Here is what I found in the files, I hope you like it.
Ray’s Computer
~~~
May 5, 2004
The time for action is now.
It's never too late to do…
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Added by Ray on May 5, 2009 at 5:01am —
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You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.
Charles F. Kettering
They say that things happen in threes I hope it is limited to only three as the last few days included three events that are enough for me for awhile. As you probably heard Jack Kemp, football great, congressman, presidential cabinet member and former vice-presidential candidate passed away. I had met him only a couple of…
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Added by Ray on May 4, 2009 at 8:25am —
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If you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always got.
Here we are another May Day. If they are right that April Showers bring May flowers we will be buried in blooms since it has been raining for days in Indianapolis. Besides memories of Maypoles and the likes I cannot help but remember the clashes of the past that took place on this day during troubled economic times. In fact I know that today in…
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Added by Ray on May 1, 2009 at 1:06pm —
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