As any gardener will tell you, the cycles of nature require patience...Even a fast-growing vegetable like a radish requires time.

Patience is no small, fell-good personal quality. It is at the heart of diplomacy and civility, lawfulness and civil order. Without it, people can't work together and society can't function at all. With it, we create the possibility of peace between people and between nations.

Gratitude is the realization that we have everything we need, at least in this moment.

Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy.

We can't wait until everything is OK-with us or with the rest of the world-to feel thankful, or we will never experience joy at all.

In the moments we are awake to the wonder of simply being alive, gratitude flows, no matter our circumstances.

... the major rule in the American belief system - that anyone can do anything ... is a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters mediocrity. Knowing what you're good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.