For the next month or so I'm going to be around people who really push my buttons. Sometimes family members drive me up the wall. Sometimes it's the spouses of my dear friends at holiday parties. Sometimes it's my dear friends going through holiday stress.

To prepare, I'm re-reading Patience, chapter 7 of Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva, or Bodhicaryavatara. A portion from the Shambhala edition:

We should not be angry, saying,
"They are obstacles to virtue."
Is not patience the supreme austerity,
And is this not my chosen discipline?

If I fail to practice patience,
Hindered by my own deficiency,
I am myself the obstacle to gaining
Merit, yet so close at hand.

For full text, go here. It's a different translation, but you can get the gist. Happy Thanksgiving, all.