"Receiving isn’t easy. If it were, more of us would do it with grace and
gratitude. Is there a way to change that? Can we learn to receive so we
can be nourished and empowered? These are crucial questions, not just
because the holiday season is a time when giving and receiving are part
of our daily experience. The ability to receive is, in fact, essential
to physical health, psychological ­balance and spiritual engagement." [Ode magazine, The Art of Receiving]

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” [Winston Churchill]

"At a party given by a billionaire on
Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that
their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he will never have ... enough." [John Bogle, Enough]

[image of butter angels from FINI window in Modena, Italy]