I recently had the pleasure of hanging out with Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche, the author of Living Fully: Finding Joy in Every Breath.

I’ve edited his words slightly or you can watch the video and hear him for yourself. His enthusiasm is wonderful and inspiring — and shows that there’s hope for all of us!

Of course you want the turkey to be done. You'd like the mashed potatoes to keep warm, the stuffing to stay moist and the gravy to taste homemade. You're hoping the pies turn out, the guests turn up and the TV gets turned off. You'll be grateful to have it over with, but can you take a week of hectic cooking and turn it into a mindfulness practice?

The sages did, and still do.

As a Buddhist priest, I hear quite a bit about compassion, that brand of unconditional love we imagine ourselves to be incapable of having for one another. Talking about compassion may be one reason it is so frequently misunderstood as something that we should be doing. But compassion doesn't need doing. It exists already in the harmony of things just the way they are.