"Conventional gratitude is based on distinguishing what we like from what we do not, good fortune from bad fortune, success from failure, opportunities from obstacles. By practicing conventional gratitude, we may begin to better appreciate times of good fortune and opportunity. But what about all the obstacles, unpleasant people, and difficulties in our life? "

~ Acharya Judy Lief

Five strategies for reducing travel stress -- especially around the holidays -- by Allan Lokos, from "Peace While Traveling? Not Impossible," by Rachel Lee Harris, The New York Times, December 15, 2011.

"Fall in love with the first thing or person you see. Your latte, the café worker, a bottle of ketchup, a bird out the window, a panel truck passing. Whatever. Write about it, talk to it, focus on it rapturously. A variation: Jot down a list of things you see around you and fall recklessly in love with all of them."

~ Kim Addonizio

"You'll find lot of communities which are based on the word, thus to say we speak of an ideal together and we are committed to an ideal or to a vision and so on. But L'Arche is based on body and on suffering bodies."

~ Jean Vanier