to finding the middle path. And one of the things that came to me was that silence and breathing are the tools of this practice. This practice of meditation. And that that is emptiness. That's the experience of emptiness. And... I learned something on Friday, last Friday. I went to see my therapist, and I told him that I had been finding that pleasant experiences seemed to dissipate quickly. And I talked about my practice, and he said, is it okay to say that you're not savoring? the experience. Is that okay in your practice?

[01:03]

And I said, savoring. And then the first thing that came to my mind was the listening of the bell. To actually listen to the bell and savor the bell. Savor that experience. Or a cup of tea. Or have a cup of tea and savor the experience. And it's still fleeting because... It's all about impermanence. But we have experiences, one after the other, that we can savor. And that we all know that there is suffering. And the Buddha taught that there is an end to suffering. But just in life, there's rain, there's sunshine, there's dry weather, there's pleasant, there's neutral. there's unpleasant, and these are things that are normal. So on one hand, I already knew and learned not to become attached to the pleasant, not to cling and grasp to the pleasant, but that it is okay to savor the bell, to savor the experience

[02:26]

So the stillness of the mind of finding the middle path is all about being authentic, an authentic practice. So how do we find out Buddha nature, our true selves? Where do we find that? My talks over the years have been about personal experiences. I guess I started out thinking that I didn't know much else except what I experienced, so I sat with what was safe. But I'm finding more and more that these have become really important teachings, important to share and to experience. So I've been doing this. I guess this is my quest for enlightenment, to practice not only silence, with the sound of the bell and walking that middle passage, the middle path, to get to the place of Nirvana.

[03:31]

So hot, cold, rainy weather, it's all relative. It's all relative. And some of it we enjoy and some of it we do not. I'm not one for hot weather. I don't enjoy it. I'd rather be cold, especially this time of my life. But my daughter who is here, she loves hot weather. She just loves it. And maybe in 20 years that'll change. But we now experience a different kind of enjoyment in life. And And that's okay. And coming back to the bell every time is a very simple way to remember what's true, what's real, what's important. And where the emptiness is and how we experience that.

[04:36]

And how we can experience without being sad when the bell is silent. Without being sad when the meal is over. And the meal tonight was wonderful. I got extra and then I couldn't finish it. So that's another sign. But anyway, the middle path is the balance between these experiences. When I was in grad school, and this is many years ago, my mentor, who was my professor, used to tell me, not too high and not too low. And at the time, I didn't quite get that. But I was living a life where I was on several boards of directors, a lot of committees, several meetings a day, and she would tell me, just have one meeting a day. Just one. And I still didn't quite get that, how that related to my practice.

[05:40]

To have that kind of stillness, to have that kind of silence. And just to make that commitment to take care of myself and not run in many directions. To be able to sit and listen to the sound of the bell. I've since learned what she meant. She died last July and for a while I kept wanting to email her forgetting that she wasn't on the other end. But she taught me a great lesson, which I have to draw upon still right now. So, I am breath. I am breath. Not just when I'm sitting, not just when I'm silent, but as I walk through the world, as I engage

[06:44]

with other people as I experience commitments in meetings. And I say that now, but I had a very difficult experience last night. After my therapist told me last Friday that I could savor the moment and be B in the moment, I had four days of bliss. It was amazing. I thought that was easy. or a fee, that something happened. Last night I had a board meeting with my board of directors from my organization. It's always the last Tuesday of the month. I never enjoy it. And I was trying to really breathe through my preparation to going there and being in that meeting. And, As soon as I went into the meeting, there was criticism.

[07:46]

There was ranting. There was a tirade. There was all the blame and shame, which I know in practice is, there's no blame and shame. There just is being. There's just this moment. And yet, I took it all in. All of it. my stomach was in a knot. And when I got home, it was still like that. And then this morning, it was still in a knot. And I thought, this is great. I'm going to the Zen Center tonight. What am I going to do with this feeling, this experience? So I think one of the important things about practice is community. And sometimes I forget that. Living in community and working with community and turning to community when you need them.

[08:52]

So I emailed a friend in Southern California that I've never met before. But we email a lot and she's been quite a supporter. She's been a real mentor. She just understands. Her family wed my puppy. She came from a litter there, and she interviewed me for a month online to make sure I was the right person for Sasha. So I emailed her, and she sent me this fabulous email that just woke me up. And it is about being awake. It really is about being awake. So I forwarded her email to my partner and he wrote me this fabulous email about, you know, people not understanding the sensitivity of others and, you know, all this great stuff. And I really, of course, then the feeling of my stomach just went away and I felt better.

[09:59]

So... There's some components that I have sort of worked with. One is having times of silence and stillness, and then other times it's been about forming community and relating to my community and who that is. I asked a friend of mine who lives on a sailboat in South Foledo several months ago, how am I going to take care of myself when I'm an old woman? And she said... form community. Form community. And for those of you who live here, and for those of you who come here, you have that. You have this community. So then there's still the differences in our personalities and how we

[11:00]

present ourselves to the world. And Thich Nhat Hanh wrote the poem, Call Me By My True Names, and in the book, By the Same Name. And the point of the poem is, we can't always change our circumstances, but we can change how we relate to them. as I'm finding more and more in my own practice and in my life. Just like today, I was able to find a new way to relate to a circumstance that I didn't create last night. So I'd like to share that poem. I'm sure a lot of you already know the poem. It's one of my favorites. Let's see. Don't say that I will depart tomorrow. Even today I'm still arriving. Look deeply.

[12:03]

Every second I am arriving. To be a bed on a spring branch. To be a tiny bird with still fragile wings. Learning to sing in my new nest. To be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower. to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. I still arrived in order to laugh and to cry, to fear and to hope. The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death of all that is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river, and I am a bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond, and I am the grass snake that silently feeds itself on the frog.

[13:03]

I am the child of Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, and I am the arms merchant selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the 12-year-old girl refugee on a small boat who throws herself in the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. I am a member of the political world with plenty of power in my hands. And I am the man who has to pay his debt of blood. to my people down slowly in a forced labor camp. My joy is like spring, so warm, and makes flowers bloom all over the earth. My pain is like a river of tears, so fast it fills the four oceans.

[14:05]

Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once. so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion. So I'm sure that most of us dealt with ourselves as merchants selling arms to Uganda. or the pirate that raped the young girl. But we do have the capacity for these things. And even though it may not happen, we see things and we hear things in our neighborhoods surrounding the center or wherever you may live. And when you hear these things, you think, that could never happen here.

[15:12]

Not in our neighborhood. And yet people do have the capacity for these actions. And yet somewhere in those same people there's a gentle heart. There is the blossom on the tree. There's the mayfly. So I really love that poem. I read it a lot and I share it when I can. So we have to watch the mind in difficult times, and these are difficult times. The economy, I can feel it. I can feel what's happening with the economy. Wars, the occupation of people and their lands, world stress, sorrow, fear, anger, loneliness. So we have to find peace in what is happening in this moment, from moment to moment.

[16:21]

Another lesson I learned is about letting go. And it's taken me a long time to really understand what that means. I used to get mad at my partner and I would purposely keep the anger going as long as I possibly could. Let's see, how long can I make this last? You know, a week, you know, how long can I do this so he suffers? And actually I was the one that was suffering. And I mean, this has happened more than once, I can tell you. But I'm learning more and more that by letting go, I suffer less. And it's not just letting go of the discomfort of an experience, but it's letting go of everything, even the pleasant. Because at the end of that pleasant experience, when the bell stops ringing, there can be suffering.

[17:35]

So it's like experiencing, listening, and then letting go in every moment. Ajahn Chah, Southeast Asian Buddhist master said, if you give up a little, you'll get a little peace. If you give up a lot, you'll have a lot of peace. If you give up completely, you'll have complete peace. So that's a path that we can follow, giving up completely for complete peace. If we don't let go, we're destined to live a life of suffering. Ajahn Shah had something to say about suffering as meaning of our teachers.

[18:39]

He said, there are two kinds of suffering. The suffering that leads to more suffering and the second that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first. So that's the suffering that leads to more suffering. And we have a choice. We have a choice how we experience suffering and how we can let it go in the nick of time so we don't have to suffer anymore. And I will admit last night I tried really hard not to suffer. I just felt like it was totally out of my control when we're back. It wasn't. You know, I kept trying to get rid of this knot in my stomach.

[19:42]

I just couldn't do it. So that's when community comes in, sitting down and talking with someone, getting the feedback, and also practice of sitting and watching it dissipate, watching it leave. Returning to the emptiness. Sitting with the emptiness. So that there's nothing there. Not the knot in the stomach. Not a sensation. Nothing good. Nothing bad. Nothing neutral. Nothing unpleasant. Nothing pleasant. It's just the emptiness and the stillness and the quiet. The silence. That's what And that has been my practice.

[20:43]

I was first introduced to meditation in 1970. And I was in college. Let's see, when was I in college? I think I was a sophomore. Yeah, I was a sophomore at the University of Washington. And a girlfriend of mine and I decided that we would take a yoga class. And it was yoga and meditation. And first it was yoga, and then it was meditation. And just to let you know how long ago this was, women wore leotards and tights for yoga. They were all black. And they were these stretchy things. I'll never forget it. So, you know, we had yoga. And then when it was time for meditation, we sat in a circle and there was a candle in the middle of the room, of the floor, of the circle. And I can't remember if we were encouraged to close our eyes or not, but the next thing I knew, I was floating up above this candle.

[21:57]

And I was looking down at the candle and looking down at myself And all the women in the circle. And yet while I was up there, everybody else was up there too. All stretched out, floating in the air. And I thought, how am I going to get down from here? I couldn't believe it. On one hand, it was sensational. On the other hand, I was scared to death. So that was the beginning. That was my beginning of meditation. And... After that, because I was so involved in the church and my family, I was in this struggle of, is it okay to meditate and be in the church? Is it not okay? I looked for as many books as I could possibly find to justify a practice of meditation.

[23:01]

And it was very, very difficult for many, many years. And then finally, the experience that I had at that time in the church was not satisfying, this particular church especially. And I decided to return to just sitting, not rejecting anything or not blaming anyone, just to sit and to find silence, find the quiet of my life. And I remember sitting in the hallway and on a bed. And at first, I just couldn't do it. I got up to, went to the kitchen to do something, come back again. And then I looked at the flowers on the table.

[24:02]

Oh, we need to be moved a little bit to the right. you know, one thing after another, finally I was able to sit for three minutes, quality meditation. Pretty soon it was 10 minutes and 20 minutes and a half an hour, 45 minutes. And then one day I sat and I was in such a still place in my spirit that I was able to sit for more than an hour. And had no desire to get up. None. That's when I was still sitting on the floor, which I have not been able to do for a while, to sit on a cushion. But no desire to get up. And although I enjoyed the opportunity to sit alone and to clear my mind, I miss the community that I had in church.

[25:02]

So that's when a friend of mine took me to Spirit Rock. And I sat in Jack's Monday night. And during the tea break, you know, people would say all kinds of outrageous things to me. You know, like, what are you doing here? I thought black people like Baptist churches and dancing. So, I mean, and that... Plenty of that over and over again. I finally decided that I wasn't going out for tea. And I sat in the front against the wall with a whole class behind me of 300 or 400 people. And one day I thought, I can't come back here. I can't do this. And I got up and Jack came to me and said, try to stick it out. He didn't know me. He didn't know what I was thinking. But he said, try to stick it out. And now I teach Jack's class on Monday night and other day-longs and retreats.

[26:13]

So I'm pleased to be here and I really thank Lee for inviting me. Lee and I have known each other for ages. Just forever. Just forever. So today my practice is not Oh, I love that one thing that I always like to share. When I was having all these great tricks on my cushion in the hallway, I would go up and just leave my meditation on the cushion and just zoom, zoom. And didn't think a thing about it, but I was wondering why during the day I still was feeling unrest. And I've had these great sits. Then pretty soon I was chasing the perfect meditation because I had one. So I tried to chase that down. So it's been quite a journey since that time.

[27:15]

And what I finally learned is even though I sit, what's really important is to carry that experience, that openness, that feeling, that emptiness, that vastness with me wherever I go Not to just get up and borrow trouble or slip into more suffering, but to allow myself to practice in everyday life. So that means driving, although my eyes are wide open, but walking to answer the phone, cleaning, excuse me, cleaning and any household duties and chores as a householder that my practice has changed. I didn't really practice much when I raised my daughter because I got caught up in single parenting.

[28:23]

If I were to do it over again, which we can't, I would focus more on not just being a good parent, but a better parent as a example of how to live a peaceful life. So anyway, as I'm entering old age, this is my new practice in everything that I do, everywhere I go, to not be too high and to not be too low. So it's an intention that I've set for myself And in the remaining minutes, which I don't know how many we have, I would like to ask some of you to share your intention of what you've let go or what you'd like to let go. What is your intention in that experience?

[29:26]

Anyone? Anyone like to share? Excuse me, yes. and trying to follow the global interaction for this to change and stop and to read properly with appropriate thoughts. Good, that's great. I can learn from you. It's definitely what needs to happen. Yes. I guess I'm certainly trying to... I guess...

[30:31]

but when I experience this very intense self-obsession, kind of spiritual egoism, where I'm like, I'll be like, during the practice, and sort of, oh man, this is great, kind of on this big deal. And sort of noticing how much that attitude, that kind of self-congratulation, promotes my Good. That's good. That's great awareness. Someone else? Yes. My intention is to let go of the various forms, various ways in which I separate myself from others, either putting others on a pedestal and feeling smaller or vice versa. being in a position where I think that I'm different or more advanced in all these solutions of separation and higher and I tend to let that out of thought and belief system go.

[31:49]

Good. Yeah, that's great. I think a lot of us have had that experience. It's so hard in a society where We're taught to compare ourselves to others and have those that are above us and those that are below us and trying to find a place, which has nothing to do with that. But to try to find that place, that's good. Anyone else? Yes. I'd like to both be able to practice and passion you yet let go of trying to carry everyone's burdens. I didn't like work, that's a huge problem. So I think I'll sit there with them and try to be compassionate and open, yet not operate and headache getting trapped and suffering.

[32:56]

I thought it's been awful. It's been awful. That's my daughter. But you more than anyone I know, you're so good at that. Being able to be with people who are in difficult lives and to have compassion for them. But I guess there is a little bit of taking it home that goes on for all of us. situation when you see people suffering, children especially, and it's not their fault. Anyone else like to hear more? I had the intention to kind of let go of the old years that were many years raising two children.

[33:58]

I wanted my intention was to raise children who did not come home with this household. And now we have perfect children who love them. And yet I discovered even with that intention, there's still Very interesting. Good. Yeah, this.

[35:00]

Amazingly, I'm just noticing my own patterns. So two things I've been trying to work on. One is that being judgmental, critical, so vulnerable and to just like how to send this and kind of just to not think about why it just goes on and on. Another thing is that fear. Like, when I get into a relationship, I think about future of us or how the average of us is that we would be just the present. Take a step. Yeah, yeah, I can relate to that. My relationship with Ricardo is 12 years old, July 17th, coming up. And it's definitely not my first relationship. But yet, in all these years, I am always having expectations of him that are unreasonable.

[36:06]

And, I mean, he's not perfect, so, you know, I'd like perfect, but I'm not getting that. But, you know, I have expectations and, you know, I get these mixed messages and I just, you know, start suffering. So in my situation, it's much better to just sit with it, be with it, and then enjoy these incredible moments when I get an email like I got today. And last Friday when I saw my therapist, he asked me if I'm able to draw him out of myself when I need that. And I thought, wow. I explained that to him. He didn't get it, but that's okay. But yeah, you know, again, about community, those that we choose to spend time with and enjoy without expectations of future, you know, comparisons of the past.

[37:18]

We have an opportunity to enjoy without suffering. and to let go of those expectations. And sometimes that can be a challenge. Again, in a society where everything's a love story and a movie or seeing people walk down the street hand in hand, you start projecting what you think that is and wanting to have that. It's difficult, but it kind of goes back to Thich Nhat Hanh's about calling me by my true names and knowing that we do have a variety of names, but we can always come back to our practice as a place, a starting place all over again, every moment, each moment. Anyone else? Yes.

[38:21]

My intention... Right now, it's to try to make room for a little bit more irresolution, lack of resolution in my life. My husband and I were on our way here, hurrying down the street in order to get caretakers out there, and we were afraid we could be late. We were hurrying. And as we went down the street, it was my practice. Someone was approaching, a man was approaching, and I nodded. smiled at him, but when he asked us for 60 cents, we said no, and rushed on, not because we didn't want to get the money, but because we were afraid we were waiting late for a test, which is a ridiculous irony. And we looked at the rest of that. Oh, wow. I am so devoted to my own type of validity.

[39:22]

making decisions, planning things, carrying out my excellent plan, so on. Yeah. Thank you for that. That's a great story. Anyone else? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, please. Yeah, when I came here in the practice field, I remember that I gave two people jobs, and we told these kinds of things to get myself to run. I remember that for then, two months, I was like, yeah, for the week, not to do that. And I appreciate that. Nothing bad was just two months. Yes. Yes. Sometimes we like to orchestrate our path, make things happen with a fear of something happening.

[40:47]

Can I see your hand over here? I thought that I did. Okay, I have one more thing that I'd like to share about intention setting. I offer my time and energy to benefit all beings when all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness. May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering. May we be in harmony with the world around us. May we dwell in the great equanimity, free from passion, aggression, and prejudice. So if you have some questions, I'm open to them.

[41:49]

Yes? So what was your experience after Jack told you to stay down? Oh boy. That is a very long story. Well, let's just say that that was in 1991 and I stayed. But Spirit Rock is not a very diverse community. And so I sort of took it upon myself to try to create an environment where people of color, where lesbians and gay people and others could feel comfortable there. And we did sort of develop this reputation for making diversity a priority, and they're important in the community.

[43:00]

And because of all the hard work I was doing, I believed it. And so did a lot of people here at Zen Center. But I realized that I actually a lot of suffering for myself in that effort all those years. Taking on the charge, leading the way, and wanting to change people. That does not work. That just does not work. So It took me all of last year to learn how to let go of that. I still do some Dharma talks. And like I said, I teach Jack's Monday night class once in a while.

[44:03]

And yet I had to let go of all of that and not be dissatisfied with what I see or the people that, you know, all human. And also I've been teaching at the East Bay Meditation Center and that's been a joy to go there. It's very diverse. So yeah, that was a very difficult spell and now I feel free from it. But Jack remains a really good friend and there are many people there that I care a lot about. So That's the short version of the story. I'm sorry, yes. You started to talk a little bit about diversity. Particularly in the West is predominantly, well, there's a lot more people.

[45:14]

And I'm wondering if you can talk about a little bit about the working communities of traditional non-white people and how that works to practice and how to sort of, I think there's a lot to work in university and how do we continue to kind of practice with that and how do we keep moving forward and truly holding people accountable for their choices and their decisions. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Well, you know, as I said, I felt pretty helpless after all these years of trying to really get people to embrace diversity at Spirit Rock and, you know, So the reason I thought it was working is because I kept getting these interviews with Buddhist magazines.

[46:17]

And, you know, over the phone or, you know. So I just thought, well, this is really happening. But it really wasn't. And one thing I did over the years is I started People of Color day longs and retreats to create a safe place for people of color to practice, hoping that in the long run, they would start sitting in the regular, usually white retreats. And that did happen to some degree, not as much as I had hoped. So, you know, I did feel like I had failed in a way. What I didn't pay attention to is that some of the Spirit Rock people actually started the East Bay Meditation Center and they kept asking me to come teach and I never did for a while.

[47:21]

I didn't think I had anything to offer because I think I felt that I failed people at Spirit Rock but I didn't create the environment that was needed to embrace and to love communities of color and I just guilty about that. But then finally I agreed to go teach at the Eastbury Meditation Center and it was a whole different experience because there are all these people, there are diverse groups that valued the work that I did all those years. I didn't realize that I had an effect on a whole community of people who were sort of weaving in and out of spirit rock and learning the dharma and learning to practice and ended up in a place that they felt really comfortable. And so I realized that my contributions were appreciated.

[48:28]

But it is very difficult when people do what they've been taught in a cultural way that doesn't fit or relate to all different cultures and languages. We learn from what we were taught. And so in the Midwest, everybody pretty much has been taught in a similar fashion. So it makes it much more difficult for people who are quote unquote different to come in and feel comfortable. So really the burden is on the community to try to make everyone feel welcomed. And that's a very hard thing to do. When people really want to be comfortable and they're used to being comfortable in a certain way, it's very hard.

[49:32]

I went to a day long retreat at Spirit Rock, this was years ago, and I was standing in line to register at the table. And when I got up there, there was a white man and a white woman sitting at the table, registering people, checking out who paid and who hadn't paid. And when I got to the table, I was asked what I was doing there. And then I told them my name And the guy looked down the loose. He said, you're not on the loose. You didn't pay. And there's this long line of white people behind me. And here I am, the only black person, you know, being told I didn't belong there, that I hadn't paid. And if you teach at Spirit Rock, you don't have to pay if you're a teacher. But, you know, I'm going through this. And on the side of the wall, there were flyers. And there was a stack of flyers with my picture on them.

[50:33]

Instead, you know, I'm going through this thing and I'm mortified because it happens over and over and over. So I had to call the retreat manager out of the office and she laughed it off like it was no big deal and just told them who I was. And so I found myself over the years becoming friends of staff people and volunteers just so I don't have to go through that mortification. You know, oh, that's Marlene, you know. So we have a long ways to go. We still have a long ways to go. There was a day long that I was teaching at Spirit Rock, and I invited my daughter to come and sit. And it didn't occur to me that she had never been in the lower community hall, but she had only been in the hall on the hill. And so that's where she went.

[51:34]

And she went there really early in the morning. And the people there that were registering people couldn't tell her where the day long was. They didn't know. And she just left and drove home. And when I heard about that story, I was just in tears. Because, again, it's another rejection of sorts. You know, this isn't that important. Or, you know, I'm just... Guessing. She's not important. We're busy. We're doing something. We don't know. I mean, it could have been very easy for them to figure out. The meditation hall down the hill had the day long. That's usually the case. So, you know, these things happen. And, you know, a lot of it has changed our society, but there's a lot more that has to happen. And it's going to take more than a family of color in the White House, even though that's a wonderful thing. I can't even believe it. So I don't know if I answered your question.

[52:38]

Any other questions? Yeah. What do you think that, you know, I don't shall met by the kind of suffering that brings an end to suffering? What brings an end to suffering? You know, I really think that he meant what the Buddha has taught us about the end of suffering, and it's a process that takes place. We know that there is suffering because we experience it. We know that there's a path that's part of that suffering, but we believe that there is an end, and I think the end begins with ourselves, to not cling and grasp and be attached to whatever that experience is, pleasant or unpleasant, whatever that experience is, to not hang on to it, to walk with open hands or to live with open hands to the degree that will allow our practice to really see what is before us.

[53:55]

And like I said earlier, when I got mad at my partner, I would just work on it. keeping it going as long as I possibly could. And that was suffering that led to more suffering. And in my mind, I thought that I was punishing him when in fact I was punishing myself. So letting go of things that pop up like that, a memory, an unpleasant memory, unpleasant experience, the temperature of a room, something that just doesn't feel right or we blame and shame ourselves, those experiences lead to our suffering. But letting those go in the moment that we can, in the exact moment that we can, that is the beginning of ending suffering. And it's living in the moment and not hanging on to the experience, even if it's a pleasant experience.

[54:58]

letting go of that experience. For example, I love ice cream and I'm not supposed to eat it. But if I do have it and I get down to the bottom of the bowl, I'm unhappy. It's gone. So it's even letting go of that experience. Just letting it go and not having the expectation that that next little morsel of ice cream is going to be there and or whatever the pleasant experience is, just knowing that whatever moment you find yourself in is okay. And just walking those steps through those moments and appreciating the practice in that way. And that's what I have been trying to do since I realized that I was leaving my

[55:59]

meditation on the cushion. Once I figured out that I was doing that, then I started trying to bring myself into the moment. And yet things do happen. Sometimes I feel an incredible amount of despair. Just amazing. Like it just will never be over. And yet, you know, I know that it will because all these experiences dissipate. All of them. Even those that are suffering in war-turned countries, there's always the opportunity to find that moment as difficult as it seems or as difficult as it is. We're very lucky. We're very lucky we should be able to find that moment easily in our lives. I don't know if that helps. Anyone else? That was a good question coming from a priest. Anything else? Thank you for having me.

[57:03]

I appreciate being here.

[57:06]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_91.32