Take my almost-daily walk. Puts me in touch with nature (like when I was a kid and spent all my time outdoors!) I walk around my neighborhood so I can perhaps see my neighbors too. I love fashion & style so can read and savor my library books on that.

I think this question has especial meaning today in light of the events in Charlottesville. We’re brought up to “compare and contrast,’ (remember English class?); when really we’re all so much the same. So many just wanting a good life for themselves, their families and loved ones.

Solitude gives me a chance to commune with my Higher Power. It’s a refuge in the slate of responsibilities. Love this question, too, Kevin!

Sweeping the kitchen floor is surprisingly joyful & peaceful to me. There is joy in the play of sunlight and wind (such a wonderful combination!) in my windows and through the sheers hung there.

My dedication and “stick-to-it-ness.” I’m a member of a tiny “resistance” group nearby, and have been writing and submitting to online magazines. Nothing published yet, but some very nice rejection letters!

Have to admit I’m a little jaded as far as a “sense of wonder.” I am a Brother David “vet”: started reading him in the mid-80s when his sense of wonder was fresh. These days, though, I do feel it in the presence of my four nieces – their beauty and the freshness, newness of their early-20s lives.

Abhor conflict; will avoid it at all costs. It makes me physically ill (migraine, nausea.)
When it’s others’ conflict, I just shut up.

Believe I did that yesterday. My mother, who is almost 90, asked me to accompany her to a celebration for the Catholic diocese she worked for for many years. I was glad to do it: my mother loved her long career and is really a celebrity in the diocese. I’m glad to enable her to go to something she’ll really enjoy. On another note, I have let go of a 50-year hurt and resentment against her…enough already!! Now I wonder why I hung on so long! It frees ME!!

I have one friend, a married woman with four kids, I feel especially, spiritually close to. As a kid, I always had one best friend, and I feel like my female friend is that in adulthood. We’re both in a 12-step program. I, in fact, am her sponsor. At the start of our several-year friendship, I said to her, “I’ve never felt this way (I guess this spiritual, emotional intimacy) about a woman before!” It is such a gift!.

It feels wonderful…thank you demo.gratefulness.org ladies for this one–smiling stills remains a challenge for me. Why is it so difficult? My life has changed profoundly. Why hasn’t my face?!

Wow, Always Learning indeed has a challenge. For me, I can get caught up in the superficial; but then remember that everyone has some kind of struggle and it brings me to compassion & empathy. Having faced so many struggles myself, I am uniquely suited to listen!

As with Always Learning, blessedly, my own spiritual growth is blooming and it’s giving me peace & happiness for perhaps the first time in my adult life. Brother David has been a small but vital part of this growth.

Yeah, you know I get so much from her!

Just let go. Stop fighting and let go of it.

Hi Gina–Took years!! Now it seems so simple.

Thanks so much, Paul, for sharing about your life. The same good wishes to you and your friend!

Dear Anna, what a lovely share. Thanks for it!

How nice of you to say, Palm!

Thanks, Kev!