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Good evening. I'd like to start tonight's talk with a very brief story about a prisoner

who had spent many years in solitary confinement where he spoke to Noah and his food was given

to him through a little opening in the wall.

One day an ant crawled into his cell and the man contemplated it with real fascination

as this little ant crawled around his room.

Any hell that in his palm and at one point he gave it a grain or two of food and kept

it under a tin cup at night and this went on for many, many days that he just observed

and engaged with and got involved with this ant and one day it really struck him that

it had taken him ten long years of solitary confinement to open his eyes to the loveliness

of ant to the loveliness of ant.

So I was reflecting on this and found it interesting to wonder about what really enabled that

connection, that valuing of ant to arise and certainly a quality of presence but also

something else that's very particular that's related to presence and it's a word that

we don't often filter our experience with and that is humility.

That contrary to the habit of self-centeredness and putting ourselves above others or other

creatures, he didn't put himself above ant and because he wasn't separate from or above

he was able to be in that kind of intimacy that appreciates what's there.

These serbs have a really wise saying and it says, Be humble for you are made of earth,

be noble for you come from the stars.

Be humble, you're made of earth, we're made of this stuff and be noble we come from the

...