Obama in Israel: Peace Process Is Surprisingly Resilient

President Obama is coming to Israel next week. Among other things, I hope that he is coming to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Most pundits remain pessimistic, but I remain hopeful. The following anecdote will explain why.

Last Sunday I gave a talk at St Bart's Church on Park Ave. and 51 St., in the heart of the prestigious East Side of New York. The talk was in the format of a public interview and took place at the "Rector's Forum" in the informal atmosphere of their famous "St. Bart's Cafe." When I arrived a few minutes early, I was warmly greeted by the new rector of St. Bart's, Rev. Buddy Stallings, to whom I had been introduced by a Jewish friend in New York last fall.

Rev. Stallings was greeting many of his congregants at the end of their worship services in their magnificent historic church when I walked in, and he immediately introduced me to a congregant by the name of George Mitchell. Yes, the very same Senator George Mitchell who was instrumental in bringing about the "Good Friday" agreement between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (in 1998 as the special envoy of President Clinton) which ended the decades old bloody conflict in that part of the world. I was, of course, greatly honored to meet him.

And when I began my talk on "The Other Peace Process -- Interreligious Dialogue in Israel in the Service of Peace," Senator Mitchell came into the room to be part of the audience. So I was even more honored. Moreover, since I knew that he had served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009-2011) under President Obama, I knew that I had to be careful to be historically accurate in what I said.

During the public interview, I was asked many difficult questions by the moderator, Rev. Stallings, but also by the attentive and perceptive audience. Undoubtedly, the most difficult question was: "What is the most difficult challenge that you encounter in your work in peace-building through dialogue in your country and your region?" I replied that my most difficult challenge is attempting to engage in dialogue among Jews and Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) in an atmosphere of ongoing political stalemate and the resulting individual and communal despair which leads many people to believe that our conflict will never be resolved.

I explained that it has been almost 15 years since the last peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was the Wye River agreement in 1998 (signed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, which only proves that he can make a peace agreement with the Palestinians if he really wants to). Moreover, the decade that began in the year 2000 -- which was characterized by the failure of the Camp David talks in August of that year, and which was followed a month later by the outbreak of the Second Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) -- was a decade in which separation replaced normalization and despair replaced hope.

This has led most people on both sides -- Israelis and Palestinians -- to be despondent and to believe that this conflict could go on forever. Even though polls on both sides show that both peoples still strongly desire a two state solution, most people do not see it coming in the near future. This has led to a dangerous psychological and conceptual situation in which individuals see no way out of the current impasse.

Toward the end of the conversation, Senator Mitchell rose to make a comment. He told us that five days before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland, a public opinion poll revealed that 84 percent of the people on both sides of the conflict felt that the conflict would never end. And yet it ended with an agreement that has led to the cessation of the cycle of violence and the beginning of power-sharing and reconciliation among the parties to the conflict there.

So conflicts can and do end. And ours will end in the Middle East, hopefully sooner, rather than later.

And then we can get on with the real work of peace-building, i.e., of training Palestinians and Israelis to learn to live together in mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. This will be a long-term project, which will involve many sectors of civil society on both sides, including rabbis, imams and priests, educators, youth, students, young adults and women. It will be a decades long educational, religious, spiritual and psychological process in order to secure safety and wellbeing for all people in our region. We in Israel have already begun to do this through our work in interreligious dialogue and education for peace. But when the peace agreement is actually completed, we will have a lot more work to do!

Source  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-kronish/obama-in-israel-peace-process-is-surprisingly-resilient_b_2884649.html

Anticipating Obama In Israel

No matter how hard he tries, President Obama cannot lower expectations surrounding his visit to Israel.

Yes, we'll hear a great deal about how this is only—as American Ambassador Dan Shapiro put it—about sending a clear message "to the Israeli nation, to neighboring countries, and to the American nation, regarding the strong and deep connection between the two countries," as if clear isn't crystal by now, especially to Palestinians. And, yes, Obama and Netanyahu have personal tensions to alleviate, so that, once the president gets here, both men will go through the motions, like the president and John Boehner pretending to overlook the other's stiffer-than-usual golf swing.

But it's not personal. It's business. The president is walking into a land of forlorn hopes, which in spite of everyone's better judgment have been rekindled by his reelection. If he endeavors to keep hope dead, something bad will begin to happen. He doesn't have the luxury of doing no harm with empty platitudes.

As Sam Bahour and I argued recently in the New York Times, two-thirds of Israelis would support a two-state agreement, but more than half of even left-of-center Israelis said Mr. Abbas "could not reach binding decisions to end the conflict." At the same time, 52 percent of Palestinians favor a two-state resolution (a drop from three-quarters in 2006, before two Israeli clashes over Gaza), but two-thirds judged the chance of a fully functional Palestinian state in the next five years to be "low or nonexistent."

Translation? Moderates on both sides still want to see the peace process renewed, but they are being shrunk by a status quo that's explosive. The settlement project continues, Hamas gains in prestige, and the only way to see beyond a grinding fight to the finish is an American-sponsored peace process in which, finally, the president can be expected to put a thumb on the scales to outweigh the thumbs of Netanyahu's political allies.

Just anticipating Obama in Jerusalem is spooking Israeli politics. You do the math: Netanyahu could, if he wanted to, build a tight, rightist coalition very much like the one he had for the past four years, albiet with 61 seats—63 if you include Shaul Mofaz—not the 65 he had before. (Menachem Begin had 61 in 1981.) But Netanyahu, by all accounts, is simply afraid of sitting in a room with Obama and telling him that settlements cannot be scaled back, or Jerusalem cannot be discussed, because this will cause Moshe Feiglin or Naftali Bennett to pull the plug on his government. Like it or not, Obama is a kind of coalition partner, too. All expect Netanyahu to concede just about anything to get Yair Lapid into the coalition, just to prove he has a proxy for U.S. interests and sensibilities.

For his part, it is true, Lapid seems more focused on "equality of burden-sharing" than on peace negotiations, code for getting haredim into the labor force and the army; he knows his votes came from a revolution of the employed, taxed and conscripted against spongers. But even if some of Lapid's voters consider all peace efforts naive—that we don't have a partner, yada, yada—the settlement project persists and, to most of Lapid's voters, settlers feel as burdensome as haredim. Lapid's "moderation" may be little more than an incipiently guilty conscience—you know, the prospect of having to defend settler fanaticism to the world—yet nobody inflames this conscience more than Obama 2.0.

For all Israelis, now, Obama may be Mr. President-ally, but he also embodies the hybridity of globalist forces, as well as skepticism regarding Zionist special pleading. Everybody supposes he'll give everything for Sderot, nothing for Tapuach—that unlike Reagan and Bush, he's smart enough to know the difference. Unlike Obama 1.0, however, Obama 2.0 is strong enough to enforce the difference.

The Israeli press, certainly, assumes Obama will get to the Palestinians sometime after his visit to Yad Vashem, just like he got to taxes with Boehner sometime after the 15th hole. Yesterday morning, "informed sources" told Israeli radio correspondents that Obama will "seek assurances" from Netanyahu that Obama will be able to pursue negotiations, public and otherwise, with Iran without "military surprises" from Israel. In a heartbeat, Arye Golan shifted to Palestine, wondering aloud whether, by conceding a non-strike on Iran, Netanyahu might deserve less pressure on curtailing settlers—as perfect an example of the narcissism of the Israeli "consensus" as you're likely to hear. (Presumably, the reward for not dragging the U.S. into a precipitous regional war should be less pressure on ending what the region considers an ongoing causus belli.)

The point is, Obama is expected to provide some kind of political horizon, which means public gestures for Palestinian statehood and against the settlement project. He cannot appear cavalier about this expectation. If the next four years will seem continuous with the last four, tempers will flare, especially in Palestine, and violence will come to seem inevitable. All the wrong people on both sides will be saying "I told you so."

Okay, Obama will have to make the rounds with Netanyahu at the Knesset, and speak reassuringly about Israeli security. But he should also do what Joe Biden did: fill an auditorium at Tel Aviv University. Or, if security arrangements can be worked out, fill Rabin Square, as Mayor Ron Huldai has asked. There, he should lay out, albeit in broad terms, principles for a two-state deal: the 1967 borders with land swaps, two capitals in an undivided Jerusalem, security arrangements buttressed by American monitors and bilateral defense agreements, and a refugee solution consistent with the modalities worked through at Taba and in the Olmert-Abbas talks. And then he should count the ovations and watch them be transformed into new political facts.

A speech of this kind along with a presidential visit to Ramallah—where officials will receive him as representatives of an internationally recognized state—will finally provide the region what it's needed all along: a way for the sides to trust in the future without having to trust one another, and a process European countries can rally to. In any case, Obama cannot leave the region the same place it was before he came. History may bend toward justice but hopelessness bends it back.

Source  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/12/anticipating-obama-in-israel.html

Obama to lobby for immigration reform amid citizenship dispute

Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on Tuesday to lobby for their support, and he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to tout the administration's border security efforts.

The flurry of activity, including new moves in Congress, comes amid disagreement between the Democratic president and many Republicans over the question of citizenship for illegal immigrants, an obstacle that could make it hard to reach a final deal on sweeping legislation.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, will address immigration reform and other issues in a speech on Tuesday to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

In excerpts to that speech, Cantor walked a fine line on future citizenship for those in the United States illegally. "We must balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those waiting to enter this country legally, with care for people and families, most of whom just want to make a better life and contribute to America," he said.

Obama is expected to use his February 12 State of the Union speech to Congress - a major annual address by the president in which he lays out his legislative priorities for the year - to keep the heat on Republicans, who appear more willing to accept an immigration overhaul after they were chastened by Latino voters' rejection in the November election.

But differences have emerged since Obama and a bipartisan Senate working "group of eight" rolled out their proposals last week aimed at the biggest U.S. immigration revamp in decades.

Obama wants to give America's 11 million illegal immigrants a clear process to achieve citizenship, including payment of fines, criminal background checks and going to the "back of the line" behind legal applicants. He has vowed to introduce his own bill if Congress fails to act in a timely fashion.

But top Republicans want to defer citizenship until the county's borders are deemed more secure - a linkage that Obama and most of his fellow Democrats would find hard to accept.

Obama's aides are confident the president has enough leverage to avoid giving ground. They believe that if the reform effort fails in Congress, voters are more likely to blame the Republicans and they would suffer in the 2014 midterm congressional elections.

The Republican strategy could soon become clearer. The Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled House, where reform faces the toughest fight, will kick off hearings on Tuesday with a broad look at the immigration system and border security.

A congressional Democratic aide said Republicans have lined up a set of witnesses that is "a lot more balanced than you would have seen in previous Congresses, when you would have seen hard-line enforcement-only advocates be front and center."

SETTING NEW TONE

A number of leading Republicans, worried that their party has alienated Hispanics with anti-immigrant rhetoric, have made clear they want to set a new tone with the fast-growing Latino electorate. More than 70 percent of Hispanic voters backed Obama in the November 6 presidential election.

Immigration reform advocates will watch the hearing closely to see whether Republicans mostly stress piecemeal reforms, such as more border security and more guest workers and high-tech visas, rather than the comprehensive reforms that Obama and the Democrats are seeking.

Some conservatives have warned that the reform efforts now taking shape essentially could offer "amnesty" for law-breakers.

A bipartisan House group has been working behind the scenes on a reform package they hope to unveil before the State of the Union. But it was unclear whether they would meet that goal.

Underscoring the difficulty of resolving such a volatile issue, Republican Jeff Sessions, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday introduced narrow legislation aimed at removing illegal immigrants from the workplace.

"Before considering some broad-based amnesty, shouldn't we finally deliver for the American people on the enforcement of those laws already in place? What good are new promises when old ones are being broken," Sessions said.

At the White House on Tuesday, Obama will try to rally business and labor leaders with a sales pitch that immigration reform will be good for the fragile U.S. economy and help boost job creation, administration officials said.

Obama will meet with chief executives from 12 companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc's Lloyd Blankfein, Yahoo Inc's Marissa Mayer as well as Arne Sorenson of Marriott International Inc, Jeff Smisek of United Continental Holdings Inc, and Klaus Kleinfeld of Alcoa Inc.

He was also scheduled to meet with leaders from labor and progressive organizations such as the NAACP and AFL-CIO.

Source  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/05/us-usa-immigration-idUSBRE9130V620130205

Before a Departure, a Rare Joint Interview

They sat side by side, trading laughs and finishing each other’s thoughts. Five years ago, the very prospect of such a moment would have been “improbable,” as one of them put it.

But now as the improbable partnership between President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton winds down with her pending departure from the cabinet, the two rivals-turned-allies sent a public signal of solidarity on Sunday — at a time when one has run his last election and the other is contemplating one more.

The unusual joint interview with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” was noteworthy mainly because it happened. Neither broke much ground in describing the journey that took them from bitter opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 to collaborators in dealing with terrorism, war, diplomacy and global economics.

But the picture of comity was presumably what the White House wanted when it proposed the interview to CBS in the first place.

“I consider Hillary a strong friend,” Mr. Obama said.

“Very warm, close,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The two laughed off the meaning of the interview for the 2016 election, when many Democrats expect Mrs. Clinton to run again. Mr. Obama could hardly endorse her when his vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., appears to be angling for the party’s nomination as well.

“You guys in the press are incorrigible,” Mr. Obama told Steve Kroft when he asked about the 2016 race during the interview, which was taped last week. “I was literally inaugurated four days ago, and you’re talking about elections four years from now.”

Mrs. Clinton suggested that it might even be illegal for her to answer. “I am still secretary of state,” she said, “so I’m out of politics. And I’m forbidden from even hearing these questions.”

Mrs. Clinton said she was still recovering from the concussion she suffered last month after falling and hitting her head. Among other things, she has to wear glasses for the time being instead of contact lenses. “I have some lingering effects from the concussion that are decreasing and will disappear,” she said. “But I have a lot of sympathy now when I pick up the paper and read about an athlete or one of our soldiers who’s had traumatic brain injury.”

Mr. Obama defended himself against criticism that he has been too passive on the world stage, pointing to his intervention in Libya, where a revolution aided by NATO warplanes led to the death of the country’s longtime dictator. “Muammar Qaddafi probably does not agree with that assessment,” Mr. Obama said of the criticism, “or at least if he was around, he wouldn’t agree with that assessment.”

The president lavished praise on Mrs. Clinton for her discipline, stamina and talent. And they put a glossy shine on history by brushing off the tough primary attacks five years ago as the product of trying to find differences where, they now say, there actually were not that many.

“Despite our hard-fought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country,” Mrs. Clinton said.

“Made for tough debates, by the way,” Mr. Obama added, “because we could never figure out what we were different on.”

“Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard,” she said.

As for any residual bad feelings, they said it had taken their aides longer to get over it than it had taken them. “What did evolve was a friendship, as opposed to just a professional relationship,” Mr. Obama said. “Friendships involve a sense of trust and being in the foxhole together. And that emerged during the course of months when we were making some very tough decisions.” 

Source  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/us/politics/obama-and-clinton-appear-on-60-minutes.html

Tips to help stick to health related New Year resolutions

Forty-five percent of people will make a resolution at the start of 2013, yet less than half of those promises will still be in effect six months later.

Monday is like the January of the week: the day that people can reset their intentions after the weekend and try again. By recommitting to their resolutions every Monday, they get 52 opportunities to stick with it and incorporate healthier habits into their lives.

Plus, having a Monday resolution means people don’t have to do it alone.

The tips to help stick to their new year resolutions are

On Monday, people should eat a more diverse, nutrient-dense diet by swapping meat one day a week for fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.

People can take 8-11 quit attempts to kick smoking for good, so they should gain an advantage by recommitting to their quit every Monday

They should add more fitness into their daily life by starting the week with physical activity

They should maintain sexual health, their weekly reminder to call the clinic, set up a preventative health appointment, or restock on condoms and other essential supplies.

People should set aside some time each Monday to plan their needs for the week and ensure that they stay healthy. 

Source  http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_tips-to-help-stick-to-health-related-new-year-resolutions_1783556

SEO Master Expert Reveals New Advanced Techniques in SEO

SEO master expert shares his views with MEST Education on new advanced SEO and SMM techniques

Online businesses in India are growing at a rapid pace. The fast paced world of online marketing demands the webmasters to research and stay up-to-date with not only existing, but also all the forthcoming SEO and SMM trends.

As part of his research, the well known SEO Master Expert and Trainer, Swapan Kumar has devised a new online marketing strategy combining the power of SEO and SMM techniques.

There are great benefits of combining SEO and SMM techniques, which many companies don't fully utilize, says Swapan Kumar, who has been working closely with a number of businesses in India, helping them achieve first page rankings with impressive ROIs.

Implementing a search engine optimization program with little or poor social media marketing is throwing money down the drain. Not knowing the missing link between the optimized content and SMM many companies incur huge losses on their e-commerce and other online ventures, added the SEO master expert.

When looking for SEO India service, SEO India company, or SEO India agency, his advice to businesses is to insist on an online marketing program that takes content optimization and social media optimization together.

The SEO trainer and founder of SEOMasterExpert.com added, Creating useful social content such as blogs, videos, images, and audio, making it available on social media platforms, making it searchable through search engines, and finally shared by millions of potential customers is a powerful way to reach an audience and improve a brand's visibility.

 

Source  http://www.menafn.com/menafn/1093592513/SEO-Master-Expert-Reveals-New-Advanced-Techniques-SEO

Ten tips for a healthy, holistic holiday

Make this holiday season one you really enjoy and feel good about, and during. Why wait until January to slough off bad habits and to start doing what will make you joyful and inspired? Joy ought to be what the holidays are all about! Try out these techniques, and go find some now!

1. Breathe, deeply and with your belly.

When someone tells you in the heat of the moment “to take a deep breath,” it can sound condescending. But if you seriously start the day with deep breathing, even just a few minutes, maybe those moments won’t get so heated. Belly breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system to help you calm. If you breathe only into your chest instead, the sympathetic branch stays engaged, putting you in a near-constant state of fight-or-flight. So breathe into your belly even before you get out of bed, or before you make breakfast, in front of a candle, under a tree (or next to the tree in your living room), or every time you hit “Send” or “Post.” You’ll be amazed how much happier your body will be for the extra oxygen.

2. Leave the sugar to someone else

Yes, Virginia, it is possible to go an entire holiday season consuming no sugar whatsoever. But the suggestion here is simply that you stop using it in anything you make, drink or eat. If there are so many goodies out in the world, and if you know you won’t abstain or be able to keep the kids from overindulging, then just be sure not to add any yourself. If you must bake sweets, experiment with using honey, molasses, or maple syrup, or stevia. Or coconut flakes. Or just a lot of applesauce and some extra spices and natural vanilla flavor. Be the person who brings something to the party that won’t make the kids go crazy. Load it with nuts if there are no allergies and let the richness of those sustain you blood sugar levels. Sugar not only causes up and down mood swings and contributes to sleep problems, but it can also weaken your immune system and make you more likely to catch the cold of that snotty kid running through your neighbor’s living room.

3. Let go of negative emotions

If you’ve never heard of Emotional Freedom Technique, prepare to be wowed. This technique of tapping certain spots on your body can seriously make some of those annoying things that have weighed on you for years – frustrating conversations, stupid mistakes, hurtful words – just melt into thin air. A newer technique called WHEE (a combination of EFT and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR)  is even easier: you simply tap yourself on your forehead alternating your index and middle fingers while you affirm that “Even though” you feel (whatever emotion), you love and honor yourself. Be sure to rate your level of the feeling before you start (1-10) so that you stop when you notice the level has gone down to zero or the feeling has shifted to something else. It may sound too good to be true, but watch videos online and get ready to meet your new self without all that baggage.

4. Go to bed by 10 p.m.

It’s tempting to stay up late shopping online, wrapping, baking, or visiting with family. But our bodies really do need to do important work in the night, and they need us to be sleeping to do it effectively. The liver and gallbladder need to detox, but they can’t do that effectively if you are engaged in activity. There’s a whole lot of interesting chemistry related to times of rest and even seeing lights after a certain hour. (Give your pineal gland the rest it wants and turn off the tablet after dark!)  

And, as tough as it may seem, try to keep kids’ bedtimes relatively stable and as early as you can. The book NurtureShock makes a powerful case for consistency and for adequate sleep. Even losing a half-hour for a few days in a row can dramatically alter how kids perform on tests. Imagine, then, how they must feel. Talk about sleep as something they are so lucky they get to do! Isn’t it true we all wish we didn’t have so much work and responsibility that we could spend more time sleeping? Help your children value rest!

5. Stop eating by 8 p.m.

It might seem like some kind of sacrilege to suggest, but your body will thank you if you let it do its nighttime rituals of cleansing without having to instead digest a whole bunch of new food. Ayurvedic practitioners might even say to stop by 6 or 7 p.m., but 8:00 seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Eat what you want, even a lot if you have to get yourself out of a nighttime snacking habit. But then Just. Be. Done. You may be surprised to find yourself sleeping better. It might feel good right away or take your body a few days to adjust, but before long it will just be what you do.

6. Eat with intention

Okay, so maybe there is a theme here. It’s about fully enjoying what you’re doing rather than doing it to get by or just because you are distracted or frustrated. This is especially important with food, because what we put in really does become who we are. If you’ve got an emotional attachment going on with, say, eating and stress, try EFT (see above), but if it’s just a matter of habit, just pay attention and start a new habit. Chew enough and slowly enough that your body gets the signal it’s full. Sit and eat and only eat so that your body can use its energy to digest. If it gets the signal that there is stress afoot – like, say, that a bear is chasing you – your body is not thinking to itself, “Let me break down this food.” Instead it’s saying, “Let’s pump the adrenaline so that we survive to make it another day!” Drink only a little – and nothing iced or cold – with food so that your digestive juices don’t get diluted or the digestive process stalled by having to bring everything up to body temperature.

7. Limit screen time

Whether you or your kids have sensory issues or not, everyone can benefit from a little less blinking on the boob tube, especially at a time when there are so many extra things to take in, from decorations to performances to tasty treats. It might seem like relaxation to sit in front of the TV, but give your senses a rest and watch only what is really important to you. At other times, light a candle, read a book, play a board game, draw a picture or, have a simple conversation, if you must have some kind of input, just listen to some music if you don’t have the means to play an instrument yourself.

8. Move your body

Some people say you need to exercise a minimum number of consecutive minutes per day; others tell you multitask your muscle-time and just walk further in parking lots and do squats each time you pick up something for the floor. How about instead you just make the commitment to spend some time – even five minutes – just moving your body and not trying to accomplish anything else. Whether you sweat or not doesn’t matter. Just get outside, or on the stairs, or on a bouncer, or on your yoga mat, and tell yourself this is a gift. If you do it every day, it will start to become something you look forward to, and then you can try to up the minutes or set greater goals.

9. Get outside

Even if the gym or your treadmill at home are what gets you moving your body in any kind of weather, do make sure that you also have some connection with the natural world. Studies show that spending time in nature can improve mood and concentration and provide a whole lot of other great benefits. You don’t need to read a research report to see for yourself. Even if you just get to the local park to shuffle through leaves or to sled down your neighbor’s hill, make sure you spend some time without walls around you.

10. Say thank you

Showing gratitude is not just the domain of lofty quotes by revered thinkers; it is an everyday act that can totally shift how you feel and how others around you feel. If people feel appreciated by you, they feel better and go out to spread the good karma. We might be in the habit of thanking people for gifts or for having us over to their home (and if we aren’t, start now!), but we can also develop the habit of showing gratitude for their very existence. It’s fun to practice: say thank you to every person you can for anything you can think of. Start with the cashier, the people who hold the door and other usual suspects. But go on to thank the people who do volunteer work, even if they do it all the time, and anyone who performs any action that in any way makes your life easier or more enjoyable.

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/reading-ingredients-tales-health-conscious-mom/2012/dec/13/ten-tips-healthy-holistic-holiday/#ixzz2FIxrwgKl
Follow us: @wtcommunities on Twitter