The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

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Good morning. I wanted to take a moment and express my appreciation for Gill.

Gil was scheduled to speak this morning, but he's taking some time for himself today.

And, you know, just this community and who's here and everything that I am C and I.

R.C. is you know it's a testament to Gill and how much he gives us.

And I was, during the meditation,

I was thinking about how I first came to this community about 25 years ago, I know, where did the years go? And Gille was teaching in Palo Alto at the Quaker Friends Center.

Some of you may remember, yeah.

And, and. And I had just graduated from Stanford from college and was working and a colleague said to me I didn't know her very

well and you know I was in my early 20s and she, you know, seemed much older.

She was probably like 27 or something.

But you know, was married and something.

And she said, you know, Max, oh, she was pregnant at the time as well.

And she said, Max, I go to these talks on Monday nights.

And for some, I just think you would think you would like them and you want to you want to go you know just talk tonight or something and I said okay you know and it was like you know she's a meditation and a talk and and I remember

Parking in the neighborhood it was off of middle field, you know, near that area near 101 and I was working a little bit farther

down 101 and one of the office parks and Bayshore. And so it was really close and I remember parking in this very quiet neighborhood.

It was so, you know, dark and quiet and I wasn't familiar with it.

So it's kind of, you know, your senses are a little bit heightened

because I don't know, I don't know this place. And so I parked and then walked in. And in my memory, it was a long

room and people were sitting kind of facing each other on the room.

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