GOD, INFINITE PATIENCE...LOVE

Just a Closer Talk With Thee: Thank You for all my dark suspicions about others' dark suspicions about me for they lead me to You. Amen

Try this: In your mind, call friend and foe 'Beloved' -- it's well-nigh impossible to hold a resentment toward someone you have named 'Beloved.' 

I know (and hope to someday soon fully realize) that the 3:00 AM I-see-me wake-ups of rues, regrets and remorses are as nothing...all wrapped up in self-deception. Self-deception is blame and shame; there is no God there.

It is self-deception that blocks the love within from flowing out...or, for that matter, from flowing within, a balm to your being. 

Love and laugh...or, again, just get over yourself.

Thank you.

GOD'S GRACE RUSHES OUT FROM WITHIN

[The following is a reprint, slightly reworked, of my post of April 10, 2012.]

To "sow to the Spirit" is to place all reliance, all trust, all hope in a higher power deep within. That is to turn from our ego-victory reasoning mind and reap the things of the Spirit.

It was only by divorcing myself from my own opinion that I realized that truth. It was my opinion that I could, more should, be able to get my self-determined needs met by thinking, by analyzing, plotting, planning. This is arm wrestling with God, a egoic no-win proposition.

Our very problems, through our own reasoning-mind efforts to overcome them, only grow bigger and uglier...until we experience that grand and glorious sensation of crashing and burning. Only then do we reach for help from an unknown, unseen source. Only then can God's grace flow from within to save us from our own self-determined fix-it objectives...in Its own way, in Its own time.

It's a whole new way of thinking...to be grateful, and sincerely grateful, for all my worries as they are happening, as in a loved one's health, my petty peeves, my I'm right/you're wrong mental games. When I am lifted there, I am free and do know a complete reliance on God.

Failure of aid from outside sources opens me to my "complete reliance on that which heretofore has never been experienced...the Infinite Invisible" which brings the realization that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Thank you.

GOD IS OUR NET

 ...it is crucial to allow God and at least one other person to see us in our imperfection and even in our nakedness, as we are—rather than as we ideally wish to be. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 19, 2019

Ah, there's the dreaded wish-come-true...to be known by another and loved anyway.

We are brought up short by the realization that we hold the key. Only we can determine who is allowed entry into our being. Then comes the big Oops. Yes, we can determine who enters, but we cannot determine or control their interpretation of what they are privy to.

That, another's interpretation of our imperfection, our nakedness, is our Cross...share it or bear it, our choice.

We only realize in looking back that our decision to open up our imagined devil's den within was God doing for us through us.

We hold our nose and take a leap of faith in hopeful trust that God is our net. And he is...every time. And especially when, first take, the net feels less than we'd hoped for; second take, proves to be our gold.

God loves us so much!

Thank you.

THE READY INTERVENTION OF GOD

In a casual conversation recently, I repeated an old fantasy of mine (I repeated a lie). I thought nothing at all about telling it for it had been one of the many fantasy stories I had told for most of my adult life...in fact, I told it until I realized it was nothing but a fantasy. Apparently, it had been my wished-for truth.

Later that evening when I remembered the conversation, I was a tish taken back that I'd told the story for I'd gotten clear of it some time back...I'd told myself.

Ah, and here came a blinding flash of the obvious to save my day: We must needs repeat, rererepeat, our prettied up crap to become reconciled with it as a part of us...to love and laugh about it within and without. If it were, as we wish, lifted out without work and more work on our part, there would be no  spiritual growth.

For what it's worth, and strictly according to me,  in repeating my fantasy, I was "doing it right." That was the God of my understanding staying my subconscious egoic need for control which still more spiritual growth subverts. It was my initial despondency when I recognized that I had repeated the lie that let the BFO out. As long as the lie stayed covered up inside, I could fool myself that it did not exist. All the while it was playing shame-and-blame with me, pulling me down away from love and laughter.

There. Proof that God can, will and does intervene in our life in our behalf.

Thank you.

USE OUR DIFFICULTIES TO GET FREE

According to Buddhist psychologist John Welwood, We are learning to use each difficulty along the way as an opportunity to go further, to connect more deeply, not just with our partner, but with our own aliveness as well.  [From Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," June 17, 2019.]

We are learning to use each difficulty as an opportunity to go further. There it is...the nugget of gold we seek. Unconsciously at first...thus we resist every difficulty and believe it God's will when we conquer one. In fact that is our rigid self-will using one, many or all of its tools...victim, avenger, fear, et al., to "win."

Word of warning, we will stay stuck in self until we loose it and let it go."It"  being whatever we are resisting.

To paraphrase Eknath Easwaran, when someone upsets us, hurts us, maligns us, we must not draw back but go closer to that one for our spiritual goal is to overcome our own self. The hurtful one is but our chosen taxi to ride, or angel, to get ourself clear.

Welwood further wrote: A conscious relationship is one that calls forth who you really are. . . . 

Building a conscious relationship may feel hurtful, ugly, sharp, stinging...wrong, in a word. But if it only gives us the equivalent feeling of puppy love it is the equivalent of puppy love...fleeting, egoic, fun for the moment but utterly self involved.

To find and to  live out who we really are can be...at times must be...painful to our ego-self, to our surface-self, else we stay on the surface of our own life...involved with self alone. There is no God in that.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank you.

THE PLACE WHEREON YOU STAND

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of October 8, 2016.]

....the will of God is not a 'fate' to which we submit but a creative act in our life producing something absolutely new . . . something hitherto unforeseen by the laws and established patterns. Our cooperation (seeking first the Kingdom of God) consists not solely in conforming to laws but in opening our wills out to this creative act which must be retrieved in and by us. -- Thomas Merton

I don't know why but Thomas Merton's writings usually sail right over my head. I say that to give some understanding to the only thing that grabbed me in this quote, the bit about our cooperation, seeking first the Kingdom of God.

My understanding may be well off the mark from what he meant, but my heart sang on reading it because I have come to believe that seeking first the Kingdom of God is quite literally our only quest. My place in the world, the future of our country, how to help the sick, the poor and the downtrodden are important but seeking first the Kingdom of God is essential.

The mindbender to me is the realization that our rightful place...serving our country, the sick, the poor, the downtrodden...is the search for the Kingdom of God. When we finally learn unto acceptance that our self-determined objectives lead us down blind alleys, we are given to look higher. Our error has been not in the object of our desire but in the beneficiary. When we seek for self, we seek alone; we seek for God, we find others...and God.

We seek first the Kingdom of God and find it right where we stand...the place whereon you stand is holy ground. Where else could we expect to find it? Our Father is within.

Thank you.

BECOME FULLY PRESENT TO THE PRESENT

The feminine . . . is shifting the global paradigm from one of dominance and individualized salvation to one of collective awakening and service to all beings. —Mirabai Starr

Made mine: My Father within is shifting me, my thoughts and my wants from one of getting-over-on-others-while-looking-good to collective (mine and thine) awakening and service to all beings. 

For women mystics, contemplative life is not so much a matter of transcending the illusions of mundane existence or attaining states of perfect equanimity as it is about becoming as fully present as possible to the realities of the human experience. In showing up for what is, no matter how pedestrian or tedious, how aggravating or shameful, the what is begins to reveal itself as imbued with holiness. * *  *  *  *   When we purposely build periods of reverence or stillness into our days, we practice gazing through the eyes of love, and we get better and better at seeing love everywhere we look. —Mirabai Starr 

Made mine: For those of us seeking still more spiritual growth, contemplative life is not so much a matter of transcending the illusions of mundane existence or attaining states of perfect equanimity as it is about becoming as fully present as possible to the realities of the human experience [we give up fighting anything and anybody]. In showing up for what is, no matter how pedestrian or tedious, how aggravating or shameful, the what is [their wrongly thinking they are right and we are wrong] begins to reveal itself as imbued with holiness [we practice mentally unto physically being the first to give over]. *  *  *  *  *  When we purposely build periods of reverence or stillness into our days, we practice gazing through the eyes of love [by picturing our resistance moving from our head...self...to our heart...God],  and we get better and better at seeing love everywhere we look. 

The incredible fact of all these words is that I can personally attest that they work. That's not all, the whole string of words can also be stated as get out of self into God or let go and let God...or any of the goodies we agree with yet rarely practice. 

Just do it. -- Nike [Face it, an  ad campaign that is wildly successful should be a clue that it works...try it. Just do it.]

Thank you.

WALT WHITMAN AND PATIENCE

Make no puns, funny remarks, double entendres,‘witty’ remarks, ironies, sarcasms — only that which is simply earnest meant, harmless to anyone’s feelings. --  Note from Walt Whitman's journal.

I thought that I loved Whitman's quote when first I read it. Then I reread it and didn't like it so much. It took me awhile to get it. My second reaction was, when I try for that, I'm taking myself too seriously.

But...hey, It Is Walt Whitman.

So I thought on it...opened my mind as it were...and came to recognize that my resistance is in mistaking his style of writing with his content. It seems that a lot if not most puns, funny remarks, double entendres,‘witty’ remarks, ironies, sarcasms are made at the expense of another. Which, no matter how pretty we dress that up, is not a good thing.

Maybe funny or witty remarks and ironies get a bye, but then they are funniest when made at the expense of ourself.

So I came to agree with old Walt, only to wish I would take that much time and effort to understand a friend (or foe) who at first blush ticks me off. My world would be saner because my thoughts would be tamer...or vice versa.

Don't you know, God is grateful for us...we give him a daily shot at patience. Which is just love walking around barefoot...laughing.

Thank you.

OR, GET OVER YOURSELF

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you. -- Ramana Maharshi, as quoted in Eknath Easwaran's "Words to Live By"

There is a sentence akin to that quote in C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia," which maybe why that is a favorite book of mine. I do not recall it exactly so paraphrased: By my seeking I will find my Father as he himself will be seeking me. Gives me goosebumps and makes me want to whisper hallelujah.

On the same page of the Easwaran book is what has become my core lesson to learn and live:  If you curse him, he will bless you; if you harm her, she will serve you; and if you exploit him, he will become your benefactor.

There. That sentence is all about our Father within's how to live a turned-over life. Not just for us to know, but for us to show by our living it.

It is little wonder it takes so long for us to do that. Which is actually the good news. It takes a long time to inner-learn that there is naught to learn since the final answer is always, Love and Laugh.

Thank you.

TO QUOTE MOTHER MARY, LET IT BE

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: Trying to be all things to all people leads to chaos...then extinction. It is our trying that leads us away from the spiritual path and sets us onto the self-determined path, leading to our failure.

That flash stayed with me which no doubt led to the thought concerning an ongoing discussion I've heard about. There seems to be a movement in my fellowship whose purpose is to substitute the term "Higher Power" for the word "God."  The reason being in order to be inclusive to new members who don't use the word "God" but have their own word. They, too, would now use the term "Higher Power."

To me, this is akin to reinventing the wheel...our early leaders who wrote our literature used the phrase God as we understand Him. According to me, as we understand Him, if we have a receiving mind, takes care of any and all other names that we understand Him/ Her/ It to be.

I paraphrase Clarissa Pinkola Estés from her book "Untie the Strong Woman" as quoted in Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" today:

[God] is known by many names and many images, and has appeared in different epochs of time, to people across the world, in exactly the shapes and images the soul would most readily understand [God], apprehend [God], be able to embrace [God] and be embraced by [God].

[God] wears a thousand names, thousands of skin tones, thousands of costumes to represent [God]  *** there are more than six billion people on earth, then thereby [God] comes to us in literally billions of images. 

The self-determined objective of trying to nail down a single name, or of being all things to all people, takes our eyes off the prize...of coming to believe.

Thank you.

THE WELL-HIDDEN GIFT OF OLD AGE

Age 80 is the pearl...it brings spiritual reality to the material-mind fears of old-age...all the aches, pains, memory loss, etc., are here for me to experience the fact that they are as but nothing to my Spirit within...like fear, they are God calling, turning me within to him and my spiritual peace.

That peace which I have received innumerable times in my life and is growing within outward even now. 

To know that Peace is to have received the stamp of the Kingdom  *  *  *  When you have learned that Peace you are fit to judge of true values, the values of the Kingdom, and the values of all the world has to offer.  *  *  *  That Peace is loving faith at rest. -- God Calling, June 11

Here is the gift of age 80 and beyond...a life of well-earned peace, especially realized when 80 shows her age. That's when she shouts so loudly that I must recall the aches, pains and resisting thoughts are solely for the purpose of turning me to God. I pray my thank you and trust my peace is loving faith at hand.

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Hearing of the draconian laws being put forth in re abortion, I wonder...is there any law opposing abortion that penalizes the male for impregnating the woman? As the female is penalized for being impregnated?

Is there a law even being suggested that requires the male take lifetime responsibility for his part in the pregnancy? That shames the male for his part in it? Or that requires a lifetime of care...medical, mental, physical...of the child? Or, for that matter, to years of monetary care for the child?

What comparative law could there be to the one being suggested (in Georgia, I believe) where any woman requesting an abortion must submit to a medically unnecessary vaginal exam?

I do not advocate for or against abortion. I do advocate for the woman's right to choose especially since the woman is the sole party held responsible for the outcome. It seems that legislators, at one time all male still majority male, have never held the man to account with regard to a  child...born or unborn. Woman's work, don'cha know.

As is often said, if you find a turtle on a fence post, you know it did not get there alone.

Thank you.

LIVING AT PEACE WITHIN/WITHOUT

Random thoughts and idle ramblings:

Since we live in a material-mind world, our natural reactions are from the material mind. Ah, then later, more often than not, we find our self in the midst of rues, regrets and remorses. We learn to make our U-bie, pray our thank you, and detach from our own thoughts of want-to...those thoughts being such as, slap her face, punch his nose, speak hurt and laugh in their face. We complete our U-bie by remembering: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

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I have found that words of spiritual import, to stick with me and guide me in a new way of living, must needs walk in my skin, speak with my tongue without thought, not by rote but from my own experience.

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I'm thinking that God comes to each of us individually in the manner we individually perceive him. Our perception determines how the God of our own understanding intervenes in our behalf...the end result being ever for our benefit...whether we realize it in the moment or ever.

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Per Fr Richard Rohr: We are beginning to develop the art of losing. And it is an art, i.e, thoughts, words, deeds flowing from within in meaningful order...as opposed to self-determined objectives which usually are words or deeds shot without thought for which later we often need to apologize and make our amends.

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We are born into the rational (material) world, or what I think of as the world of resistance...as in, if it's not for or about me, my, mine, it should be, so ignore, deny, resist. This is why we need still more spiritual growth.

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Those toward whom I have had personal problems, I have come to think of as my Beloved...for they are the angels who walk me toward my freedom from self...as in, get over yourself.

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We pray God to save us from ourselves...which is appropriate since we are the only one we need be saved from.

To wrap it up, living at peace within our self comes down to: Welcome the art of losing, be grateful, love and laugh. According to me.

Thank you.

LIFE IS IMPERSONAL, TRUST GOD

As I began my readings in my quiet time this morning, the notes I wrote in 2004 in both "God Calling" and Easwaran's "Words to Live By," spoke again to me.

My blinding flash of the obvious as I noted in my "God Calling," i.e., My sister's disrespect of me is my gold...thank you, felt like a brand new blinding flash.

Then, in my Easwaran: My sister in her dissing me is seeking God...my being made to pay (for whatever/wherever her anger stems) is her God. She needs me in order to have something to get over on...I want to let her for my own good.

My sister is a self-described atheist, but her atheism is pretty much based on her anger at God...which, to me, negates disbelief in God, but that's for her to figure out. My role to play started with my BFO that her disrespect is my gold.

In that instant I realized her disrespect as utterly impersonal to me...not mine, meant nothing to me...ah, but only if I did not pick it up....meaning, if I responded, if only by my resistant thoughts without a word being spoken, I owned it.

What a freedom! I knew that to be true, but more importantly I remembered that truth is not selective, cannot be broken apart at will. Ergo, disrespect itself is impersonal. Which meant it was true of any snark or snub or unkindness coming from anybody anywhere...from an elbow in the ribs to a road rager. It says nothing about me or to me so I need not respond...especially not respond in kind.

The next step in not personalizing is remembering which brings the bell-ringer: Once we honestly commit to remembering, we must trust God to intervene in our behalf when, not if, we forget.  

Then there's the short form which is my personal golden rule, Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

Thank you.

GIGGLES FOR GOD

By love may He be gotten and holden, by thought never. -- The Cloud of Unknowing

My first thought this morning (after Coffee!), was that Nearer My God to Thee isn't just a hymn...the older I get, the nearer I know my need for the nearness of God to me.

I have to laugh at my memories of me making mock of my grandpa who became a holy roller in his old age...being as how in my childhood he was known as a mean, mean man who had no truck with church. Actually, in my heart, I feel a certain empathy for him in his spiritual need which he could not articulate within himself...or to my mind which he could not realize as already his own.

Ah, maybe that's misplaced empathy...maybe it is me myself who cannot fully articulate, appreciate, recognize, realize within me my spiritual need which is already my own. Likely that's why the above quote from The Cloud speaks to me.

Then, reading today's Easwaran, I am stopped by his words: We do not live in what we think; we live in what we love. And, Loving the Lord means loving the innermost Self in all those around us.

It is my less-than-wonderful thoughts of others that hold me hostage to my self...and feeling the need for the nearness of God to me. It isn't "the older I get" that brings the change, it is the deeper I get within me...hey, it may be that old age gets a bad rap because every less-than that happens after age 60, we blame on age. Resist not and find the gold!

God gets such a kick out of me...you, too!

Thank you.

KARMA...GET READY TO GET GRACED

I awoke with disgruntled thoughts toward another, a perceived heckler. Searching my own self, I got my clear...until I know, feel, realize and accept within myself love [love is the attraction of all things toward all things.] for all, heckler or not, I will be stuck in my reasoning mind resisting others' behavior toward me.

According to me, others' behavior toward me is ever a direct answer to my own inner prayer; i.e., to stand silently before my judge unmoved and unresisting with love my only hope.

My disgruntled thoughts are a prime example of God speaking, angels singing, and my ego Lucy still resisting. It's no secret that until I resist not, Lucy leads the way. And there it is, the key: That tells me there remains something deep in my resistance that is for my benefit. I needs must get grateful to get graced.

I bring my tangled yarn to You, oh Lord. I recognize that I have a tangled skein that I cannot untangle...it is my acceptance of that that turns it over to Your care to do with as You know is best for me, for the other, and for all immediately or tangentially affected. Thank You. Amen.

Thank you.

THERE MUST BE A PONY!

When we pray God give us this, keep that away, lift us over, around another, we stay stuck in our own rational perceptions. Our great glory is unimaginable to us. If we can conceive of it, it's not of God, according to me.

It was on this day in 1999, per my note in that same little book, that I saw the condo I wanted...and twenty years later, I'm still here. The many and various gifts...good unto glorious and not-so-good unto Oh No!..that have come to me these last twenty years are God's forage, and they have fed me well.

Ah, but it is in looking back that I see both good and no so much are from the same gold mine...the glorious and the Oh Noes in the main have been inner revelations brought from outer happenings. They have been gifts I neither sought nor expected. I see and say today, the Oh Noes have been my payload.

The good unto glorious we just speak our gratitude, write our thank you notes, and feel humbled if only a tish. The not-so-goods, etc., we go within and dig, looking for the decision we made based on self that has placed us in a position to be hurt.

We dig as deep as we need, taking comfort from our decision for the spiritual. With that as our guide, we know that this is for our good...this egoic ugly, unfair, unjust, etc., will prove to be our pearl. And invariably it does.

It reminds me of the story about the boy happily digging in a room filled with manure...he knows with all that manure there must be a pony in there somewhere.

God and gratitude show up in love and laughter always and all ways.

Thank you.

DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU

I recently found a very simple definition of love: Love is the attraction of all things toward all things. For whatever reason, that cleared my nebulous feelings toward the definition of God as love. I used that definition because that is the definition most given, but it never had any solid connection for me. But, again for whatever reason, God is the attraction of all things toward all things makes a home in my heart.

I long ago accepted that the foundation of my spiritual journey (that which I occasionally call my freaking cross to bear) is to practice love for my enemies. I had to do some serious inner searching to define what "my enemies" look like to me, being as I didn't think I had any. Well, they look like anyone who disagrees with me in the moment.

I came to accept that to practice Love Your Enemy, we need to make our very own the instructions found at Luke 6:27-29:  To you who are listening, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.

The pearl beyond price is that practicing those instructions (to my admittedly limited ability) has given me more than one or two friends. Who, be it noted, once qualified in my head as "my enemy." And, in the moment of disagreement, I would not have thought I'd ever want as my friend...I would have been wrong.

I am reminded again that it is in that great unknown-to-me that miracles materialize...we pray thank you and God's you're welcome transforms us and our life.

Thank you.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT SOMETHING

I am visited again with the blinding flash of the obvious that all of my problems can be solved by spiritual principles specifically means that all of my problems are between my ears.

Example: Until I turned 80, my mind, body and soul were in fairly good working order. I turned 80, and it was like I had flipped a switch...my mind is just a memory (oh, the irony), my body is falling apart piece by piece, and my soul is feeling right put-upon...which may be my ego Lucy, but I'm not quibbling now.

I take heart in the BFO because I awoke to a feeling of panic moving in, shouting "What to do, what to do?" Now, there's a place I remember well...I used to live there. The panic was all about my aching bones, my lack of sleep, whether I need physical therapy or replacement parts, etc., etc., etc.

That's when I heard the Word: All your problems can be solved by spiritual principles...pray your thank you, then listen. And I remembered that fixing me is not mine to do...that's God's job. I immediately thanked God for my aching bones, et al., for it is they that opened the door for God to do his perfect work in my life.

I've got my marching orders: Call my insurance company first thing and get names and numbers of the various specialists who tend to my specifics, then make my appointments...get moving in the right direction.

Heard some 45 years ago: The most spiritual advice you'll ever get is just do something about something. True then, true now.

God loves me so much.

Thank you.

ON THE DIVINE REALITY WITHIN

One way to summarize the essence of perennial wisdom (to paraphrase Aldous Huxley) is:

• There is a Divine Reality underneath and inherent in the world of things;
• There is in the human soul a natural capacity, similarity, and longing for this Divine Reality;
• The final goal of existence is union with this Divine Reality.

I suspect I lifted the above from one of Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations but I know not which one or even its date. The importance to me is the fact that it feels new to me each time I read it...and think, I've got to remember that. 

Actually, it comes to me that Huxley's Divine Reality is Joel Goldsmith's mystical, transcendental Presence within us that I so often quote. I find that thought...why does "explosive" come to me? But it does. That both of those concepts come from two such disparate souls...stops thought for the moment.

Huxley's novel Brave New World (according to Google, "a nightmarish vision of the future") could not be more dissimilar from Goldsmith's A Parenthesis in Eternity (according to me, a virtual How-To for living a turned-over-to-God life). And yet, I loved both. Admittedly, I read Brave New World twice in my youth, and anything of Goldsmith's almost daily for the past forty years.

My point being, our peace of mind can rest in knowing unto realization in our walking around world that there is a Power greater than self within which Power is on our side, has our back and loves us and those around us, be they friend or foe to our reasoning mind.

And so long as you do not know that to die is to become, you are just a wretched visitor on this dark earth. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

Thank you.

TRANSCENDING INNER TURMOIL WITH PEACE

Blinding flash of the obvious:  I dig the ditches that allows God free reign.

We agree with our adversary quickly not by becoming a doormat, not by blindly obeying whatever command the other person gives us, but by refusing to respond in kind to unkind. Refusing to respond with our hurt or angry feelings no matter how much we have felt hurt and angry...thus, justified...is the essence of spiritual growth.

That spiritual growth is our recognition that transcending those hurt and angry feelings is not ours alone to do. In fact, cannot be done by self-will, or "knowing better."

Here's our proof that going to God for  God and that is all is the pearl beyond price. In those moments of transcendence, we know inner peace in the face of outward turmoil.

We are graced with gratitude...the other, the adversary, has become an angel in our life without whom we would not have experienced this moment of spiritual growth.

God works in mysterious ways...we dig the ditches, but God does the work.

Thank you.