Oh Sarah. What makes you such a great observer of the world as it is, not the facade that we are presented is also the reason you feel the pain of loss and injustice so deeply. You have seen the world as it is at very young age. That's a lot of pain to carry for a very long time. I've seen the world clearer as I got older. I'm not sure how I could have gotten through life if I know what I know now.
I hope you can find peace in this world we live in. Time will accelerate in your life as you age. Hold the memories, acknowledge the present, but don't let it break you for the future.
Have you heard The Wanderer sung by Johnny Cash? It is the last track on the U2 album, Zooropa.
One of my favourites of Johnny Cash along with the Gordon Lightfoot cover you mentioned. Gordon himself a Canadian soul artist core to our Culture like the Southern artists who share the soul and faith seeking questions.
My heart goes out to you, Sarah. Losing a parent is a portal we inevitably enter and wish we could avoid. I lost my Mum 9 years ago after a 16 year decline thanks to Early Onset Alzheimer’s.
You are a what I know as a Grief Walker, a term from Stephen Jenkinson’s book “Die Wise”. Highly recommend his books and work on death and grief.
I think we are all visitors in this realm and death takes us further beyond what we now know in the physical realm.
Finding faith and healing through the gift of Nature is the supernatural expression of the closeness the Creator has with us on a personal level. I’ve met God in these places at the right time, again and again.
May the time you have with your father continue to bring soul healing. For him and for you.
This line in your piece: I was doing what I do when the pain gets too much: hitting the road and driving until I could vanish into the woods.
Made me think of the Wayfaring Stranger. Then you wrote about it. Beautiful!
My writing isn’t as good as yours. I’ve been polishing my manifesto. Wish I could make it as colorful as you might!
I’m done cataloging the sins of the past, and only interested in the wrongs of this administration for purposes of reckoning. I’d much prefer to look to the future and how to structure the kind of world in which we want to live.
For that reason, I have developed THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A Social Democratic Vision for a Free, Fair, and Honest America
America deserves a government that serves the people—not billionaires, corporations, lobbyists, or criminals. We can no longer pretend that democracy can survive under the weight of unchecked corruption, extreme wealth concentration, and systems deliberately designed to silence the public. The future belongs to a nation that is fair, humane, and honest. This manifesto outlines that path.
I. CLEAN GOVERNMENT AND REAL DEMOCRACY
We demand a democracy that cannot be bought.
Release the Epstein files and expose every abuser of power.
Overturn Citizens United and ban dark money in politics.
Abolish the Electoral College and protect equal representation.
Standardized, nonpartisan redistricting to end gerrymandering permanently.
Paper ballots nationwide—no unverifiable voting machines.
Two-term limits for all elected offices and mandatory retirement at 70.
No federal office for convicted felons.
Relentlessly prosecute political corruption, from the presidency downward.
Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who aided his abuses.
Democracy must belong to the people again.
II. A MORAL ECONOMY THAT SERVES EVERYONE
A just nation lifts people up rather than crushing them for profit.
Restore 1950s-era progressive tax rates, including a top bracket above 90%.
Eliminate the Social Security cap and tax capital gains for Social Security.
Establish a $25/hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation automatically.
Forgive all student loans and make university tuition-free for all.
Fund free, universal childcare for every family.
Dramatic pay increases for teachers, social workers, librarians, artists, and museum workers—the people who hold society together.
The economy should serve human beings, not the other way around.
III. UNIVERSAL RIGHTS FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE
Healthcare, education, and family security are human rights.
Medicare for All—a single, public, universal system with no premiums, no copays, no deductibles, and no private intermediaries.
Replace the fragmented A/B/C/D alphabet soup with one simple, public plan for every American.
Abolish ICE and rebuild immigration systems around dignity, justice, and humanity. Every person deserves freedom from fear, poverty, and exploitation.
IV. A GOVERNMENT OF HONESTY, JUSTICE, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We must rebuild a republic rooted in truth.
Government must be transparent, ethical, and relentlessly focused on the public good.
Corruption must be prosecuted, not tolerated.
Public office is a responsibility—not a path to power, wealth, or immunity.
A new political era begins when we demand nothing less than decency, fairness, and accountability.
THE PROMISE OF A NEW AMERICAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
We seek a nation where democracy cannot be bought, where work is valued, where families thrive, where rights are universal, and where justice reaches even the most powerful.
This is not radical. It is humane. It is moral.
It is the America we were always meant to build.
Please share this widely. If we don’t make it clear what kind of world we want to live in, we won’t get it. Ain’t no oligarch gonna just do this out of the goodness of their heart. If we speak loud together, maybe we can change the world!
Sarah -- so thoughtful and your words run deep (and why did that annoying Chat GPT-5 message just pop up while I'm trying to stay in my own mind?). I'll presume, but hope, you have found the "Highwaywomen" album. They bring the Highwaymen to another, fuller level, with an equal rawness. When I listen to Johnny Cash, I often picture that Arkansas cotton field, flat, barren winter landscape, a sharecropper's cabin, a can of bacon grease by the sink, simple meals, heavy on the beans, not because of some health maven, but because they are inexpensive. In life cycles, you wake up one day and you are now the elder, and it slaps you in the face. Where are the people you treasured, raised you, led you, fascinated and sometimes terrified you? Loving memories, life lessons, fleeting brain visions that you hold dear to your heart. Then I look at my child, younger people, and I wonder, what will be their cherished memories, the people who guided them through our dark times and implanted hope, who hopefully will have more than flickering pixels as their cherished thoughts. Your piece was wonderful, like nature itself, dancing from life through death and redemption, every corner a new experience, if our hearts only awaken. Thank you!
Thank you for this comment. I do know about the Highwomen! I am a Brandi Carlisle fan, she has one song that makes me cry so much (in a good cathartic way). I like the rest of the group too. And yes, I can't separate Johnny Cash from the landscape of Arkansas either.
Next time you are on old 66 - I-55, I'd love to share with you Funk's Grove just south of Bloomington. An ancient maple forest, trees tapped by a local family for the last century, a gem hidden alongside the Interstate and the railroad. Restorative.
I have always wondered what's in Funk's Grove -- it's impossible not to with that name! We have made many a "Funk's Groove" joke driving by and rocking out. But an ancient maple forest sounds amazing -- I would love to see that!
Funk's Groove - I love it. The Funk and Satterfield families were early 1820s upland southern migrants into the prairie. McLean County is a border between the prairie and the woodlands. They settled in the woodlands but then raised crops on the prairie and raised hogs in the woods. People think of "cattle drives," they did "hog drives" in the 1830s-1840s to Galena & Chicago. The Funk family is part of the "landed gentry" of central Illinois -- they still claim ownership of thousands of acres of prime prairie soil.
I've got the best readers and commenters. I'm overwhelmed keeping up with all the comments today but seriously this is a great group of people, and two years into this newsletter, a community has formed. I'm very grateful!
I'm not so sure, Sarah, that "a community has formed" here.
That is, I don't see commenters referring to fellow commenters. To you -- with deserved and great affection, yes.
Yours today thrums all over the place: museums in Nashville, natural parks you love, nature you photograph, family you're grateful to see gathered, singers grouped together, hospital and death motifs, and the greater ruling deaths by "technofascists" you can't help but cite, be mortally aware of.
My favorite set of lines from all this is on managers of an online site: "Their world is loveless and literal. They don’t understand nature or poetry or music, and they don’t understand me."
You, Miss Sarah, are a mixture, one I love for your admission in all your work not only of the beautiful (family, nature, fellow commenters, poetry, roads, and song) but also of the regnant evils we now so commonly face, as they now so near-totally rule.
Thank you for sharing this deeply personal experience. The earth is alive and we are part of it, all part of the cosmos. Stillness and quiet attention are required to remember. That’s when things happen that seem like magic but it’s not magic, it’s reality.
I am a child of Appalachia. The chattering streams and waterfalls, mountain laurel, flame azaleas, fairy crosses, and whispers of footsteps walked hundreds of years ago sustained me during my last decade of teaching in Atlanta. I kept my car packed for Friday’s journey to our rustic cabin cleaved onto the side of Pink Mountain. “Place” is a where we first open to the consciousness that we are not separate. Like a third eye awakening, our journeys become true sight-seeing. I have spent time in the Ozarks. It is mind-blowingly beautiful. I read you for many reasons. You are like these places to me.
Sarah… reading these sculptures of words and meaning you create is always a beautiful and harrowing journey. You somehow manage to capture what it feels like to be human— the smallness of it, the overwhelming, ever-present hum of it.
Thinking of how the stained-glass windows mirror the deep hue of the aurora, how the crystal blue of the sky portal mirrors the water in the cave… May you always find those fragments of light and color and know that they a reflection of of the seer in you.
What a time to be alive, indeed, and one of the gifts of this time is your writing. Sending love and tenderness to your dad, to your family, to you. xo.
You are truly amazing! I know you’re not likely to teach a writing class (or are you??), so I pore over your words and try to learn from you— “how does she DO that?!” I enjoy trying to untangle this knot— it’s a true pleasure. We need human writers, and we really need human writers that think and reflect on and write about being human. I appreciate your work so much. xo.
Thank you! This was a hard one given the personal topic -- more personal than I'm used to sharing. It came pouring out and that was a relief. Then I edited it for several days (while, of course, listening to Johnny Cash). So much of the work is editing and rewriting. That's a challenge with a piece of this length, so I'm glad folks like it!
I’m so glad you felt you could share. People are experiencing so many levels of grief right now and I think vulnerability is an incredibly healing offering for our time, particularly because it tends to have a reflective/connective quality that can impact both the witness and the one sharing.
As for your writing process, thanks so much for that little glimpse behind the scenes. It’s a good reminder that editing and rewriting are unseen labors in a beautifully cohesive piece like this! xo.
Neil Young isn't the only Canadian who appreciates and shares your work. And I love your stories. I've just arrived in Toronto to be with my own father who is also dying. Thinking of you during this difficult time.
Ah, such an emotionally articulate piece. Thanks so much for letting this sure footed, errant, stunning heart out upon this beautiful, terrifying world.
Your words today are a sign I was looking for. Thank you. I'm struggling with my own censorship because of AI not understanding nuance, so I'm going to walk out into the fields today and stare at the pond and glory in the music of the south that raised me and continues to hold me tight.
Sarah, you are the only one I read, and I am never disappointed. You often bring tears to my eyes, but you also fire off the neurons in my brain. I see colors throughout your writing, and I love your instances of synchronicity in the magical places you take us to and had to smile when you spoke of being unallied (… voice dictation be damned ) unsliced (… spellcheck be damned) I meant to say UNALIVED as I read the very same line from a girl only last night and thought what the fuck and I wanted to correct her but she was talking about her father who was killed (now is iMail going come after me?), so I said nothing.
I have a nephew, a young man my sister gave up for adoption, whose parents named him Cash after Johnny Cash, who never told him he was adopted, and he found out accidentally when he was in his 30s when he proceeded to find my sister, thank goodness. This prompted me to text him this morning and send him your article and we’re going to talk later on today, so thank you for that .
Thank you also for punctuating your writing with your outstanding photographs. I was hoping as I read through the snow flowers that there would be a photo at the bottom and I was not disappointed. I have never seen those before or heard of them.
I also enjoy reading your readers comments. What a nice group.
Contradiction accepted by at least this one reader, MZ -- or Micki.
That is, you begin by proclaiming Sarah as "the only one I read," but redeem your larger spirit by admitting at the end that, yes, indeed, you read others, too -- Sarah's "readers comments. What a nice group."
Sarah you are an inspiration with your brilliant thoughts you share. Love your writing, your books and the sharing of consistent softness of your natural surroundings.
Oh Sarah. What makes you such a great observer of the world as it is, not the facade that we are presented is also the reason you feel the pain of loss and injustice so deeply. You have seen the world as it is at very young age. That's a lot of pain to carry for a very long time. I've seen the world clearer as I got older. I'm not sure how I could have gotten through life if I know what I know now.
I hope you can find peace in this world we live in. Time will accelerate in your life as you age. Hold the memories, acknowledge the present, but don't let it break you for the future.
Thank you -- that is such a kind thing to say. I really appreciate it.
Have you heard The Wanderer sung by Johnny Cash? It is the last track on the U2 album, Zooropa.
One of my favourites of Johnny Cash along with the Gordon Lightfoot cover you mentioned. Gordon himself a Canadian soul artist core to our Culture like the Southern artists who share the soul and faith seeking questions.
My heart goes out to you, Sarah. Losing a parent is a portal we inevitably enter and wish we could avoid. I lost my Mum 9 years ago after a 16 year decline thanks to Early Onset Alzheimer’s.
You are a what I know as a Grief Walker, a term from Stephen Jenkinson’s book “Die Wise”. Highly recommend his books and work on death and grief.
I think we are all visitors in this realm and death takes us further beyond what we now know in the physical realm.
Finding faith and healing through the gift of Nature is the supernatural expression of the closeness the Creator has with us on a personal level. I’ve met God in these places at the right time, again and again.
May the time you have with your father continue to bring soul healing. For him and for you.
So beautiful amid the pain.
I always learn so much from you, Sarah! Thank you for being honest, open, and brave for the world.
Take note that “takotsubo cardiomyopathy” is physically painful and real. A broken heart from carrying much for many.
Much love & peace❤️☮️
Thank you very much
This line in your piece: I was doing what I do when the pain gets too much: hitting the road and driving until I could vanish into the woods.
Made me think of the Wayfaring Stranger. Then you wrote about it. Beautiful!
My writing isn’t as good as yours. I’ve been polishing my manifesto. Wish I could make it as colorful as you might!
I’m done cataloging the sins of the past, and only interested in the wrongs of this administration for purposes of reckoning. I’d much prefer to look to the future and how to structure the kind of world in which we want to live.
For that reason, I have developed THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A Social Democratic Vision for a Free, Fair, and Honest America
America deserves a government that serves the people—not billionaires, corporations, lobbyists, or criminals. We can no longer pretend that democracy can survive under the weight of unchecked corruption, extreme wealth concentration, and systems deliberately designed to silence the public. The future belongs to a nation that is fair, humane, and honest. This manifesto outlines that path.
I. CLEAN GOVERNMENT AND REAL DEMOCRACY
We demand a democracy that cannot be bought.
Release the Epstein files and expose every abuser of power.
Overturn Citizens United and ban dark money in politics.
Abolish the Electoral College and protect equal representation.
Standardized, nonpartisan redistricting to end gerrymandering permanently.
Paper ballots nationwide—no unverifiable voting machines.
Two-term limits for all elected offices and mandatory retirement at 70.
No federal office for convicted felons.
Relentlessly prosecute political corruption, from the presidency downward.
Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who aided his abuses.
Democracy must belong to the people again.
II. A MORAL ECONOMY THAT SERVES EVERYONE
A just nation lifts people up rather than crushing them for profit.
Restore 1950s-era progressive tax rates, including a top bracket above 90%.
Eliminate the Social Security cap and tax capital gains for Social Security.
Establish a $25/hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation automatically.
Forgive all student loans and make university tuition-free for all.
Fund free, universal childcare for every family.
Dramatic pay increases for teachers, social workers, librarians, artists, and museum workers—the people who hold society together.
The economy should serve human beings, not the other way around.
III. UNIVERSAL RIGHTS FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE
Healthcare, education, and family security are human rights.
Medicare for All—a single, public, universal system with no premiums, no copays, no deductibles, and no private intermediaries.
Replace the fragmented A/B/C/D alphabet soup with one simple, public plan for every American.
Abolish ICE and rebuild immigration systems around dignity, justice, and humanity. Every person deserves freedom from fear, poverty, and exploitation.
IV. A GOVERNMENT OF HONESTY, JUSTICE, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
We must rebuild a republic rooted in truth.
Government must be transparent, ethical, and relentlessly focused on the public good.
Corruption must be prosecuted, not tolerated.
Public office is a responsibility—not a path to power, wealth, or immunity.
A new political era begins when we demand nothing less than decency, fairness, and accountability.
THE PROMISE OF A NEW AMERICAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
We seek a nation where democracy cannot be bought, where work is valued, where families thrive, where rights are universal, and where justice reaches even the most powerful.
This is not radical. It is humane. It is moral.
It is the America we were always meant to build.
Please share this widely. If we don’t make it clear what kind of world we want to live in, we won’t get it. Ain’t no oligarch gonna just do this out of the goodness of their heart. If we speak loud together, maybe we can change the world!
You replied to B. Calbeau not Sarah…❤️
😂
Thank you for your work. It is important.
Sarah -- so thoughtful and your words run deep (and why did that annoying Chat GPT-5 message just pop up while I'm trying to stay in my own mind?). I'll presume, but hope, you have found the "Highwaywomen" album. They bring the Highwaymen to another, fuller level, with an equal rawness. When I listen to Johnny Cash, I often picture that Arkansas cotton field, flat, barren winter landscape, a sharecropper's cabin, a can of bacon grease by the sink, simple meals, heavy on the beans, not because of some health maven, but because they are inexpensive. In life cycles, you wake up one day and you are now the elder, and it slaps you in the face. Where are the people you treasured, raised you, led you, fascinated and sometimes terrified you? Loving memories, life lessons, fleeting brain visions that you hold dear to your heart. Then I look at my child, younger people, and I wonder, what will be their cherished memories, the people who guided them through our dark times and implanted hope, who hopefully will have more than flickering pixels as their cherished thoughts. Your piece was wonderful, like nature itself, dancing from life through death and redemption, every corner a new experience, if our hearts only awaken. Thank you!
Thank you for this comment. I do know about the Highwomen! I am a Brandi Carlisle fan, she has one song that makes me cry so much (in a good cathartic way). I like the rest of the group too. And yes, I can't separate Johnny Cash from the landscape of Arkansas either.
Next time you are on old 66 - I-55, I'd love to share with you Funk's Grove just south of Bloomington. An ancient maple forest, trees tapped by a local family for the last century, a gem hidden alongside the Interstate and the railroad. Restorative.
I have always wondered what's in Funk's Grove -- it's impossible not to with that name! We have made many a "Funk's Groove" joke driving by and rocking out. But an ancient maple forest sounds amazing -- I would love to see that!
Funk's Groove - I love it. The Funk and Satterfield families were early 1820s upland southern migrants into the prairie. McLean County is a border between the prairie and the woodlands. They settled in the woodlands but then raised crops on the prairie and raised hogs in the woods. People think of "cattle drives," they did "hog drives" in the 1830s-1840s to Galena & Chicago. The Funk family is part of the "landed gentry" of central Illinois -- they still claim ownership of thousands of acres of prime prairie soil.
Sarah,
I love your work, and the work of your Commentators!!!
I've got the best readers and commenters. I'm overwhelmed keeping up with all the comments today but seriously this is a great group of people, and two years into this newsletter, a community has formed. I'm very grateful!
I'm not so sure, Sarah, that "a community has formed" here.
That is, I don't see commenters referring to fellow commenters. To you -- with deserved and great affection, yes.
Yours today thrums all over the place: museums in Nashville, natural parks you love, nature you photograph, family you're grateful to see gathered, singers grouped together, hospital and death motifs, and the greater ruling deaths by "technofascists" you can't help but cite, be mortally aware of.
My favorite set of lines from all this is on managers of an online site: "Their world is loveless and literal. They don’t understand nature or poetry or music, and they don’t understand me."
You, Miss Sarah, are a mixture, one I love for your admission in all your work not only of the beautiful (family, nature, fellow commenters, poetry, roads, and song) but also of the regnant evils we now so commonly face, as they now so near-totally rule.
Thank you for sharing this deeply personal experience. The earth is alive and we are part of it, all part of the cosmos. Stillness and quiet attention are required to remember. That’s when things happen that seem like magic but it’s not magic, it’s reality.
Thank you! I felt better after writing this article but apprehensive publishing it!
I’m so grateful that you did. I rarely share my experiences.
Beautiful and heartbreaking, Sarah, as is generally all of your writing.
In the event you've not read it before, I wanted to share one of my favorite poems, Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things." I think it might resonate. https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-peace-of-wild-things/
I know that one -- thank you!
I am a child of Appalachia. The chattering streams and waterfalls, mountain laurel, flame azaleas, fairy crosses, and whispers of footsteps walked hundreds of years ago sustained me during my last decade of teaching in Atlanta. I kept my car packed for Friday’s journey to our rustic cabin cleaved onto the side of Pink Mountain. “Place” is a where we first open to the consciousness that we are not separate. Like a third eye awakening, our journeys become true sight-seeing. I have spent time in the Ozarks. It is mind-blowingly beautiful. I read you for many reasons. You are like these places to me.
Sarah… reading these sculptures of words and meaning you create is always a beautiful and harrowing journey. You somehow manage to capture what it feels like to be human— the smallness of it, the overwhelming, ever-present hum of it.
Thinking of how the stained-glass windows mirror the deep hue of the aurora, how the crystal blue of the sky portal mirrors the water in the cave… May you always find those fragments of light and color and know that they a reflection of of the seer in you.
What a time to be alive, indeed, and one of the gifts of this time is your writing. Sending love and tenderness to your dad, to your family, to you. xo.
Thank you for this beautiful comment!
You are truly amazing! I know you’re not likely to teach a writing class (or are you??), so I pore over your words and try to learn from you— “how does she DO that?!” I enjoy trying to untangle this knot— it’s a true pleasure. We need human writers, and we really need human writers that think and reflect on and write about being human. I appreciate your work so much. xo.
Thank you! This was a hard one given the personal topic -- more personal than I'm used to sharing. It came pouring out and that was a relief. Then I edited it for several days (while, of course, listening to Johnny Cash). So much of the work is editing and rewriting. That's a challenge with a piece of this length, so I'm glad folks like it!
I’m so glad you felt you could share. People are experiencing so many levels of grief right now and I think vulnerability is an incredibly healing offering for our time, particularly because it tends to have a reflective/connective quality that can impact both the witness and the one sharing.
As for your writing process, thanks so much for that little glimpse behind the scenes. It’s a good reminder that editing and rewriting are unseen labors in a beautifully cohesive piece like this! xo.
Neil Young isn't the only Canadian who appreciates and shares your work. And I love your stories. I've just arrived in Toronto to be with my own father who is also dying. Thinking of you during this difficult time.
My best to you and your father ❤️💔
Ah, such an emotionally articulate piece. Thanks so much for letting this sure footed, errant, stunning heart out upon this beautiful, terrifying world.
"Johnny Cash was a man of faith and a man of sin. He suffered and overcame, and left a record of those trials." You can be both - at the same time!
Johnny Cash's "Personal Jesus" is one of his less popularized songs, originally performed by Depeche Mode, but I prefer the Cash version:
https://youtube/qpYW3qng78E
Got. 404 error☹️
Your words today are a sign I was looking for. Thank you. I'm struggling with my own censorship because of AI not understanding nuance, so I'm going to walk out into the fields today and stare at the pond and glory in the music of the south that raised me and continues to hold me tight.
Thank you and I'm glad it helped! You've got the right plan
Sarah, you are the only one I read, and I am never disappointed. You often bring tears to my eyes, but you also fire off the neurons in my brain. I see colors throughout your writing, and I love your instances of synchronicity in the magical places you take us to and had to smile when you spoke of being unallied (… voice dictation be damned ) unsliced (… spellcheck be damned) I meant to say UNALIVED as I read the very same line from a girl only last night and thought what the fuck and I wanted to correct her but she was talking about her father who was killed (now is iMail going come after me?), so I said nothing.
I have a nephew, a young man my sister gave up for adoption, whose parents named him Cash after Johnny Cash, who never told him he was adopted, and he found out accidentally when he was in his 30s when he proceeded to find my sister, thank goodness. This prompted me to text him this morning and send him your article and we’re going to talk later on today, so thank you for that .
Thank you also for punctuating your writing with your outstanding photographs. I was hoping as I read through the snow flowers that there would be a photo at the bottom and I was not disappointed. I have never seen those before or heard of them.
I also enjoy reading your readers comments. What a nice group.
Best, Micki
Contradiction accepted by at least this one reader, MZ -- or Micki.
That is, you begin by proclaiming Sarah as "the only one I read," but redeem your larger spirit by admitting at the end that, yes, indeed, you read others, too -- Sarah's "readers comments. What a nice group."
I admit I did get caught up
Sarah you are an inspiration with your brilliant thoughts you share. Love your writing, your books and the sharing of consistent softness of your natural surroundings.
Thank you!
Spiritual poetry.
I don’t have words good enough to say how much I love this piece. So I’ll just say “thank you."
Thank you!