Meditations 2.1:

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.”

Humbug? No. Reality check

Use the potential stress and annoyances of this week as opportunities to grow in patience and understanding and self control.

That trying relative, the rude store clerk, the reckless driver… they’re giving you a chance to get a little better as a human as you choose your response to whatever may come this week.

This is not the gift you would ask for, but accept every little thing that happens as a gift that moves you further along toward the person you aim to be.

Happy holidays!