What's the criteria for someone to write about serenity? Calmness? Happiness? A sense of peace? Right.

So I'll say goodbye now. You'll have to find someone else to write the rest of this. I'm going to take a pill and a cup of decaff and go to bed. See you later.

OK - there's a deadline coming up. So here goes. Now most of you would expect that I'd give you a bunch of ways to attain serenity, right? And that's my thing - it really is. I just have to do it in the attitude I'm in at the moment.

I really believe I usually have a real serenity in my life. I have a good life, an enjoyable column to write, many volunteer projects as pay back-church projects, work at the farm, etc.-and best of all, my great family of children, grandchildren, brothers, and pets. So why am I a little bit disconcerted now?

I'm going to Rome, Greece, and Turkey with some of that wonderful family! Have you ever gotten ready to leave our country on an airline, with many pages of what to bring and what not to bring, the only sizes allowed, and what should go where in your luggage? You definitely have to be sure that your innocent articles don't seem suspicious so they'll think you are a terrorist.

Believe me, I'm all for preparation and inspection. I'm all for safety. I think I'm okay now. Now if only Amtrak would go to Europe But then I wouldn't be happy with that, either. They'd get more thorough, too.

Besides the problems with what you bring, it's what you have to do to go away for a considerable length of time. Making arrangements for mail, papers, rescheduling things you are committed to, paying bills ahead of time that will come due while you're gone, etc., etc., etc.

Also, making sure my dog, who was ill, has the right place to be while I'm away, etc., etc., etc. Luckily, there is no problem about that. Kalmia Kennels, where I got "good" and "bad" Rosie in the first place is the best place I could imagine. Hopefully, she'll be completely well before I leave.

And, by the time this column gets in the paper, I'll be home and will have had a great time, I'm sure. It's just the preparations.

Now you'll have to put up with a number of travelogues for a few weeks. I hope you enjoy my Europe as much as I did.

So, back to serenity:

"An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth." - Bonnie Friedman, NY Times

"If your whole world is upside down, and joy and cheer are far from you, romp for an hour with a six-year old child and see if his laughter and faith are not veritable posts on the Road to Happiness." - Gladys Harvey-Knight

"Contentment comes not from great wealth but fewer wants." - Florence Reindl "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."

- Malcolm X

"he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul..." - Psalm 23

"The beauty for me is, that I don't really think about where my 'religious' life leaves off and my 'regular' one begins." - David Salomont, Orthodox Jew

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein

OK, I've calmed down and can finish this column I wanted to write in the first place. Now I can't wait to go and I can't wait to get back!

BETTY STEVENSON is a community columnist for The Sun Chronicle.