Reflecting on Life


When I look back on my childhood, taking the time to evaluate my life, or maybe I should say the areas that I wrapped my arms around and embraced and those that I didn’t, it brings great joy and in some cases a level of sadness. Turning the clock back to my childhood, growing up on the farm during the 50’s and 60’s with little spare cash, just enough to get by with and sometimes not even that much, I had a good life that taught me more than I ever gave it credit for.

Graduating High School in 1968 while the Viet Nam war was in full swing, seeing many of my friends serving there and returning home not the same person, some in a box, some missing limbs, but mostly changed personalities due to the effects of the war, was a difficult time.

Getting married at age nineteen, building our first house at age twenty, becoming a father at age twenty-one, were huge steps in life for me.

The foundation learned as a youth growing up was never lost, only forgotten for many years. Saddened by so much I had witnessed as a youth and my mid-teenage years in the religious arena, set my life path in motion. Determination set in, a drive to enjoy life, to become financially sound, to take a stand against all that didn’t fit into my version of faith, all began while still in high school.

Working my way up the ranks of my first job, I worked hard. I took on two jobs in those early years trying to earn what I felt was required to be a good provider. Then becoming licensed in the electrical trade and eventually starting our own company my life was very busy. Between work, family and fun, I had my hands full. Then my eyes were opened to the rest of the world when I took a new job in 1986. Being able to travel to many parts of the world, I began to see and feel the effects that war really has. To be close to war, hearing how others dealt with war both old and new, grasping the many religious faiths and beliefs including those that have no belief in God, it kicked in motion my past and the emotions caused me to re-evaluate my understandings of life.

So what does this mean in the grander scheme of things? It shows that from childhood on, our lives and personalities are set in a direction and become altered as we continue to age, grasping new information, learning about others we cross paths with. The real question is; do we allow ourselves the freedom to open our mind and explore what we see and hear? Or do we remain set in our ways determined not to allow change? Do we even recognize that we are closed to anything that may disrupt our desires and beliefs in life?

For me, I spent the time to re-evaluate my past, examine what I had learned and experienced, and to wrap my arms around what I believe this life is all about. I worked hard to eliminate the mental blocks that so often accompanies our attempt to truly understand, disabling any rational outcome. What I found was that I could make a decision for myself, placing my faith in what I had come to understand. While it was influenced by many, it was in the end, my choice, my decision, my beliefs.

So there’s this lingering question

When was the time you slowed down long enough, shoved the distraction aside, threw out the external influences of those that educate with an agenda whether religious or non-religious or educational and dug deep enough that you allowed yourself the freedom to choose where you have placed your faith?

One of the biggest things I learned along this adventure is that it takes faith to believe in life, it takes faith to believe what it is all about. It takes faith to believe in God or to not believe in God. It takes faith to believe in the direction we choose for our lives.

Where is your faith placed?  

 

No God? – God? – Allah? – What God?


I’m not a Theologian, Pastor, Rabi, Priest, an Iman or any form of religious leader including any form of leader in this world that believes there is no God. I’m just a regular person that does not let skin color, race or anything else enter into my ability to ask questions and think for myself.

The asking of challenging question can be a difficult task especially when we are asking ourselves. Many time we do not wish to hear anything outside of what we believe to be true. To truly understand we must open our minds if we truly desire the truth.

Please read on, give this some thought and you draw your own conclusions.

Is the God of the Muslim belief, is the God of Islam and the God of Christianity the God of the Bible the same God? There are many debates on this, but for just this instant let’s say they are.

If God is who He said He is and God sent or enlightened his Prophets to inform each of us how to live our life, then He cared for everything he created which includes all men, women, and children around the world. If Jesus said to love your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself and Muhammad said to kill everyone that does not believe as I do, then who do you want to believe?

Remember it takes “Faith” to believe either way.

So who do you want to believe? Where do you place your faith?

Do I believe the One that teaches love everything I have created including all men, women, and children – or – do I believe the one that teaches kill men, women, and children that don’t believe as I do?

This is a hard question for some to answer because of the abuse so many have encountered in their lives. However, does it makes any difference who you are, what country you live in, what color your skin is, or how you were raised. All abuse has been handed down by the “hand of man.” If you are a Christian or a Muslim, if you hand down cruelty and hatred, you are not doing what God wants you to do.

Only “WE” can make a difference. It starts as an individual then to our family then to our friends then to the rest of the world.

Breaking it Down – “Evolution” or “God”


Did we Evolve? Who is God? Is He Real?

Great questions and worthy of investigation by everyone even if one doesn’t believe there is a God of any type. It’s always positive to explore open-mindedly something just for the sake of knowing if you’re right in the beliefs and understandings you currently hold.

Breaking it Down

  • If the world and everything we see, feel, hear, and smell happened by way of evolution then it all start “somehow” at “some time” in the past.
  • Something cannot be made out of absolutely nothing? I expect that human knowledge will tell us that we need something to start with.
  • If the evolutionary theory is actually how everything started, it needed something to begin with just to get started regardless of what took place that began the formation of everything.
  • Where did this come from? Just who or what could have provided these things?
  • To find out who or what could have done these things we should, I would think, go back as far in time as humanly possible.

Food for Thought

When the sciences are exploring and working to find the origin of time, when and how things originated, or how old things are, they go back as far as they can to identify the age and origination. With no documentation available that is dated millions or billions of years ago, it leads one to speculate. Experiments and testing must be done based on the assumption of what we believe things were like when it all began. However, something must have been in existence if we believe something cannot come from nothing. If we have any documentation, we should utilize it and prove or disprove its truth and not just say yes it is or no it isn’t.

Breaking it Down a Little More

  • The oldest book that ever was written was/is the Bible.
  • Who wrote it? It was written by man as all books are written by some man or woman. So human desires and human error can come into play.
  • If the oldest book that was ever written tells us that God created everything from the very beginning of time, then how do we know that the Bible is an authentic book inspired by God?

Food for Thought

If you were to read a novel or some story that has several books that tell the complete story, like a trilogy, would you read only the first book or first couple books and make up your own ending? Most of all, would you know the real outcome of the story? No, it would be your version of the ending.

Breaking it Down Again

  • If one should be of some faith that believes in God (i.e., Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc.), or even an atheist who believe in no god, then wouldn’t it be a good idea to read the entire book to see if there are truths written in it? Shouldn’t we want to check out every reference noted in the book exploring to see if it has the possibility to be factual? If we place our lives outcome in what we choose to put our faith in, and it does take faith to believe in God, some god or no god, then we should desire to know the truth and there is only one way to find it.

A little more Food for Thought

If one was to write a scientific paper on any topic in the science world, would you read only part of a book and complete your paper? Would you read the entire book and finish your paper? Would you research other writings on the subject and complete your paper? If your desire is to convince people from all walks of life to take what you have written as factual, then you need to address all possibilities showing that you have done research on each area.

So what is this all about?

If God is real and he started everything regardless of how it started, then there is only one God, the God that started it all regardless of what you call Him. If the Bible is truthful and it states, “In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth,” then science should always take this into consideration. If the Bible is real, regardless of the fact that it was written by the hands of humans, then one should utilize and research the complete story. We should look at everything that was written in the Bible hundreds and even thousands of years before it actually took place. One should not stop at the end of some chapter and write conclusions based on one’s own desired outcome.

My Conclusions

I believe that science works very hard and has so much to offer. I also believe that God is real and that there is only one God. I believe that if science would utilize what is written in the Bible as a possible foundation for how everything started, using all available technologies and findings, they will find that it offers an explanation that can be proven scientifically. I believe that man, religious man, and scientific man, has made many rules and regulations just to satisfy their desired outcome. The only reason I can comprehend is that they crave power and control over people. Maybe it’s just to add some level of comfort to themselves based on something that someone else has told them they were wrong about or something someone has told them they had to do, someone’s rules and regulation.

While I will not tell you what you should believe, I can tell you what I believe.

I believe that God is real, that there is only one God, that He created everything and that He made a very excellent place for each of us to live. I believe He created man and woman with a mind and gave us the ability to make decisions for ourselves. I believe that He never planned or wanted to be a dictator of how or where we place our faith. I believe that what is written in the Bible is truthful, factual, and it can be proven when one seriously looks at all of it. Everything that was predicted within the Bible, excluding the single last prediction, has been proven to have taken place including the story of Jesus. I believe that man has taken it upon himself to mess up this world for his own reasoning when it was so very simple right from the beginning. We were told to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. If we would just do this, we would not kill because we love our neighbor as ourself, regardless of where our neighbor lives. We would have no need for additional man-made rules because the ones we have been given are enough to make the world live in harmony with each other.

Breaking it Down: if we could just…


If we would allow ourselves to step outside our current life, dropping for a moment our inner thoughts, forgetting what we have been taught in our schools, our homes and step back from any religious beliefs we have, opening our mind to all we see, what would we like the world to be like?

With everything that is happening around this world, many times in the name of God, or some god, or Allah, or in the name of progressive evolution, one should wonder why. Why does man take something so simple to grasp, add his desires and then drive his agenda?  What is it that makes man’s desire to do evil, to hate, to murder?

If you are a Christian, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Christian you are to love one another.

If you a Muslim, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Muslim you are to love one another.

If you acknowledge that God exist, then you should show love to everyone.

What makes man behave as he does? What makes humans make up their own rules just to satisfy man’s own desires?

One of the most basic needs in life is to be loved by a mother or father, a brother or sister, a son or a daughter, a friend or a foe. Yes, even our enemy. If we loved our enemies and we were loved by our enemies, we would no longer have enemies. It makes no difference where in this world you live or what your beliefs are. Love enables each of us to grasp our desired happiness and defeat evil, to stop doing evil, to stop being evil.

Coming back full circle, we step back into our world realizing that love is drastically missing in so many places. We recognize that some force is driving man away from this simple principle of life. Is it intellect and a belief man has evolved and that some levels of man are greater than others? Is it the man-made rules in some religious belief that pits one against another? Is it a form of arrogance, conceit, pride or superiority that separates one from another? Is it aggressiveness versus laziness? Is it an evil force driving the wedge of hate and deceit into our lives?

This is a question we should ask ourselves?

To be loved one must show love remembering that real love is unconditional and real love expects nothing in return. If your religious belief, which includes all religions, (i.e. Christian, Muslim/Islam, Atheist, Buddhism, etc.) includes evil, hate, murder, then maybe you should rethink your religious belief and take a stand for “Love your neighbor” and bring this world back to what it was designed to be from the beginning.

Should we ask ourselves – Just What If?


What if? What if everyone that has ever lived in this world had never asked the question – what if? To just accept and never question should eliminate the required thinking part of our brains. We only would need enough brain that our body would function a little like how our heart works and we never have to tell it to beat, it just happens. But we can think if we choose too. The world is flat? But someone questioned that idea and guess what, it’s round. If one never questioned a thing, would there be any new inventions, cures for diseases, actually anything outside of what just happens on it’s own? So we could agree that using the word “IF” is an essential part of our life. It adds clarity to how we view thing, what we use, what we eat, and etc. So what if the world is not as you believe it is. Across this world we live in, we continue to see the evil that people do. Most of the time when someone does evil they truly believe the other deserves what they get. There is also good being done but we so often only hear about the bad on consistent basis. If you don’t ask or look for the good you generally never hear about it unless you stumble onto it. It make little difference what ethnic race you are, or if you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or someone that doesn’t believe in any god, evil affects us all. As this world we should all love spirals downward, it may just be the time to ask some important questions. Asking questions about why and then follow it up with the question “what if” could just possibly change the world we live in or at least how we view it. Here are some interesting life altering questions that maybe should be pondered.

  • What if evolution is real and no god exist? Would you say that nothing much else maters once you die? Of course most would want good things to happen but in the end, would it have any effect on the one doing the bad because he and/or she would just cease to exist. The end.
  • What if only good people that die come back as something or someone else? What is it that constitutes good? And if you are not good what happens to you? If you just cease to exist then again it has little consequence to the one that is not deemed good so they really wouldn’t care if they have no reason or desire to be good.
  • What if the god of Christianity is the real God?
  • What if the Devil is real?
  • What if there is a God of everything and a Devil trying to disrupt everything? This would explain why we have good and bad things happening no mater who is doing either.
  • What if the Bible is really full of nothing by facts?
  • What if the Islamic god of the Muslim Shiite is the real God?
  • What if the Islamic god of the Muslim Sunni is the real God?
  • What if the Sunni and Shiite God is real and it is the same God?
  • What if there is a good place and a bad place like heaven and hell we go to when we leave this world as we know it?
  • What if the Muslim god Allah is really God?
  • What if the god of Christianity and the god of Islam is truly the “God” the very “same God”?
  • What if God said “Thou shall not kill”?
  • What if we didn’t evolve and we were created by someone much bigger than we are.
  • What if God is real? Then maybe we should look up to Him and honor Him because He is far beyond our understanding and comprehension.

If God gave us the ability to make choices, He knew it could be a good choice or a bad choice. But if we didn’t have the ability to make choices, the life we live would be without purpose. If God likes us to make good choices then why do we kill in his name? Is killing a good choice in anybody’s name?

A lot of questions that so many just take for granted. But what if???? Are we ready for the decision that we have made??? Are we willing to stake it on anything other than our own personal investigation? Are we willing to take everything on what someone else tells us is the truth and never question what they say? Are we really ready for the real end result? Only one is true!

Everyone has Faith


  • It takes faith to believe in Allah.
  • It takes faith to believe in evolution.
  • It takes faith to believe that good works will get you to heaven.
  • It takes faith to believe in the Cast system.
  • It takes faith to believe we only live once and then we are dead and nothing else matters.
  • It takes faith to believe we come back to this world as someone or something else after we die.
  • It takes faith to believe that if you kill someone in the name of Allah you will have virgins waiting for you on the other side.
  • It takes faith that when you go to sleep you will wake in the morning.
  • It takes faith that when you get in a car, a cab, a train or an airplane to go someplace you will arrive safely.
  • It takes faith to order food in a restaurant or buy it in a store and believe it is safe to eat.
  • It takes faith that if you work hard at your job you will get a raise.
  • It takes faith to believe you can do something you have never attempted to do.
  • It takes faith………..

It takes some level of faith to believe in anything. We have those that will try to confuse the idea of faith by adding the word blind faith trying to make your faith unbelievable. Some confuse faith in evolution by removing the words micro and macro. Some people speak as if they have all the answers, that they have facts, that they have proof. Some people believe they are better than you or I. Some people have an agenda that is for themselves and not anyone else unless you agree to the faith they have in their agenda.

You see “FAITH” is something that we all have one way or the other. It is where we choose to place that faith that is important. So the next time we find ourselves thinking we have all the answers, thinking everyone is crazy if they don’t believe as we do, take a step back and realize that everyone has faith in their belief. The key is to make sure that where we place our faith is real or has the highest chance of being true. To openly share your faith and why you believe in it, to listen to the opposite points of view, to look into the chance of something being true, to look into the real background of any faith, religion or belief will bring each of us closer to what we should place our faith in. Faith should not be based on what we like to do or what makes us feel the best or what we want to hear. It should be based on something that is real to each of us, something that we can say holds our faith steady or something that is not threatened by others or ourselves because we look into other faiths or beliefs. Real faith should stand the test of investigation by you or others.

So where do you place your “FAITH”?

Memory of the Heart


When confronted with a situation that makes us feel sad or overwhelmed with grief – we many times say our heart aches. When we loose a loved one – we say our heart aches. You may experience that feeling in your chest that grabs your emotions and many time will bring tears to your eyes before you have a chance to put them in check. Have you ever heard anyone say their brain aches when confronted with something emotional? A lot of emotion can cause a headache over time, but not instantaneously.

When we think about memory we generally associate this with our brain. It has the ability to hold our past thoughts and experiences. We can recall them and add them to something new that has happened. We can analyze and rationalize our thoughts.

What Causes our heart to ache?

Several years ago I read a true story about a young girl. It has been a while but I will do my best to tell it as close as possible to how I understood it. She was sick and in desperate need of a heart transplant.  The parents of this young girl were notified one day that their daughter needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. A young girl had died and her heart was a match for their daughter and it was in transport to the hospital. They rushed her to the hospital, the surgery was performed and she received the heart giving her new life and a bright future. This young girl never had any issues with sleeping prior to the surgery. However, after the new heart was placed in her body she started having dreams and nightmares. She kept them to herself for while but when they keep becoming more real she told her parents about them. The doctors told them that this would pass as she recovered from the surgery. But it didn’t. She would see the face of another young girl. She would see that this girl was terrified of something. The dreams continued and she would see an attacker beating this girl in her dreams and ultimately stabbing her to death. The face of the girl and the attacker were so real along with all the details of the brutal murder including names. Her parents decided to ask about the donor and found that she was a victim in a murder but no other details were made available other than the murder had not been solved. After talking to the doctors they contacted the authorities in charge of the investigation and told them about their daughter’s nightmares. They came and met with their daughter and she told them all the details of the dreams which include descriptions and details including what both the girl and the man looked like and how the murder was committed. These details were impossible for her or her parents to know anything about. The authorities took this information and were able to apprehend the attacker and with the details this young girl was able to give, the authorities were able to make a case and the attacker was sent to prison for life.

So does the heart have memory? Does it have feelings?

It has been proven that there is what they call “cellular memory” around the heart and some other major organs even though we don’t understand it well. In this case the terrifying memory was transfer to this young girl along with her new heart. You can find other examples of this with little research effort. People have had food cravings even though they did not like the food prior to the surgery.

When we say our heart aches it is very possible that this is those deep seeded memories that are not just in our mind but buried deep in our chest around our heart. Is it possible that this is where our soul resides – the core of who we are? In the Christian belief, we say that when we accept Jesus for who he is and ask for his forgiveness he will come into our hearts. He never said into our minds. We hear people say let your heart lead you in the right direction. Do what your heart tells you to do.

Many things we just take for granted. We never stop long enough to give it the thought it deserves. If God gave each of us a place in our body that can be filled with love, gratefulness and even forgiveness, maybe we need to give this some serious thought. Just maybe everything that has been written about God is true. Which ever side of this belief you current sit on, it is important to recognize the possible implications this brings to each of us.

 

“A Short-Cut to the Future”


I can’t add any words to the message of this post. It states it so well all on its own. Powerful word for thought and needs a place in the Think Tank. Thanks Secret Angel

The Abuse Expose' with Secret Angel

“A short-cut to the future”…
is the path many want to take.
But is it the right path…
or a really big mistake.
And these words came to me…
as I lay down and pray.
So I will share with you…
as my message for today.

So many people want…
their destiny to hurry.
But looking to the future…
all they can see is blurry.
So they begin to search…
amongst the many faces…
always looking for love…
but in all the wrong places.

View original post 124 more words

Why God Why?


Why God? Why did you let this happen? I thought you were supposed to be a good God. They were good people. How could you let their little child get so sick and die? If you really control everything, then why did you do this? That precious little child did nothing wrong. Those parents loved him and they did nothing but help others. I can’t believe you did this. WHY?

Tackling this question can be very controversial. It has so many negatives tied to it. This is also one of the hardest question I have ever been confronted with. The answers are hard to find and many times hard to swallow.  Writing them down using only a few words on the subject is difficult. But this is the Think Tank, so no question is off the table. So here it goes.

The question: If God is a good God, if he created and can or does control everything, why does he allow a child to get sick and die?

We can lose a child to an accident which is tragic. Many times it happens very quickly, and it has long-lasting effects on the family. We want to blame the accident on ourselves or the person that caused it. We tend to place the blame someplace. However, when we lose a child that becomes ill with some disease and is suffering with pain that lingers, we have so much time to wonder why. We have no one or nothing to blame; we just wonder why.

This question is many times at the core of why people doubt God and make decision not to believe He even exist. We as a human race tend to blame every bad thing on God and seldom give any credit to God for any good things. I guess we could say that if God is responsible for and allowed something bad to happen, he is also allowing or making all good things happen. The question is did he make it happen? Does a father or mother make their child fall and get hurt, or did they pick them up and try to make them better? No one knows for sure why God allows something bad to happen. What we do know is that He said He takes care of his own and that He has a place for us forever. He just never told us when we will go there. He didn’t tell us exactly what it would be like, He just said if we love Him he prepared this beautiful place for us. Having a child leave this world to live with him in paradise is not a bad thing for our child. They have no pain, only joy and peace for ever and ever.

It’s for sure a very tragic thing for the mom, dad and family that lost them. We all feel that they never had a chance to live their complete life. They missed out on growing up and so many of the things we have experienced. Most of all, this family has the pain of this loss and miss having their child with them. We as a family are heartbroken. Sometimes we can become very bitter wanting them back with us. Our mind tries to figure it out but all we can say is – Why God? How could you do this?

We all know this world is not a perfect place to live. Even if it started out to be perfect, we continue to mess it up in many ways. Bad things are happening including the many things that we can credit directly to our human race and it’s desires. If we were to start analyzing man’s contribution I am sure it would take a book or two. In this case I truly believe that it is not God that made the child sick. I also believe that it would have been a tragedy if God had allowed the child to stay really sick, continue suffering or to survive and live a life in pain. So maybe God reached down or sent his Angels down and picked this child up. He loved them so much that He took them out of their pain. It hurts each of us when we think of our loss while we are still living, but if we believe in God we will see our child again and live with them forever, not just for our short life here on earth.

There are many thoughts and even arguments on this subject. While I can say I have never had to bare the burden of loosing a child. If I do, I trust that they will be living in Heaven and I will be with them someday forever? I know that I would never get over my loss, but I trust that I will be happy they are waiting for me to join them someday.

In Control, Out of Control, Being Controlled


The thing about control is that it has to start in our mind. When you dig really deep we find that the brain and the workings of the mind can become complicated to understand. However, I believe some of the key basic functions we can comprehend without a Doctorates degree which enables us to better understand how we control things in our lives.

Generally we must first comprehend a situation exist and then the result of our action or reaction kicks in gear. The key is that we have to comprehend and not just react.

When we are in control we feel confident. When we are out of control we feel stressed. When we are being controlled we are upset. The thing about control is that we ultimately control all of it. Even the quick reaction our body makes if a snake suddenly appears while we stroll along some path. We quickly stop. In this case it is a reaction and not a comprehension based on logical thinking. However, we programed the reaction over time by what we put in our brains reaction center and in reality it started out as a logical thought way before you took the walk. Some things are simple. A snake bit can kill you so stop. While we need these quick reaction responses programed in our brain to keep us safe, they can stop us from seeing the rest of the picture. The question we should ponder is; what have I or someone else programed into my mind that causes me to react and not allow the full process of gathering information which allows a conscious thought out decision. How often do we only look at one point of view because we have programed our mind this way; we are comfortable with our position on a subject so avoid any chance of possible change in that position.

In today’s world we continue seeing example after example where someone else is assumed responsible and self responsibility is secondary. Allowing someone else to control, manage, manipulate, and influence our lives is many time unseen by each of us. Our daily life takes on a direction of those around us. We do things in a manner that does not disrupt the local boat. We become so tightly locked into our local world we stop really thinking for ourselves.

If we really evaluate our lives, we see the many influences that make us who we are. In some cases we may feel that this is good, but sometimes we also can look back and see that it was not really what we would like. It was not with an outcome that we were pleased with. While we would like to go back and change the outcome, it is impossible.

One of the old sayings that my Grandmother would say was; “All things work together for good”. I know she got this from the bible, but she used it when ever something just did not work out so great, or when something bad happened. So when we encounter these bumps in our road, do you look back and get up tight or do you let it go and move forward? Do you try to fix it or do you trust that down the road you will understand the good that came form it. That things will turn around and good will come from something that didn’t work out like you imagined.

This is one of life’s biggest challenges!

If we could just learn to love one another, I do believe everything would work out for the good. When life drums up something that upsets our apple cart, can we learn from it and move on without letting it totally disrupt our lives? Can we learn to evaluate the event, possibly search our inner thoughts, maybe do some research, and then move forward with a positive attitude?

We control our actions and re-actions. Only when we allow others to totally influence us do we loose this control. When others with an agenda are in control, we become someone they want us to be. God gave each of us a brain and a mind to think with. He gave us the compassion to give love, to accept love and to create a loving environment for ourselves and those around us to enjoy. It is with the faith we have in God, that we were created with a purpose and that we did not just happen that gives us such great hope. That we are somebody and not just something that evolved!

No matter what you believe, go and search those thoughts, look in all directions, really evaluate what you have decided to believe in. One thing I have determined is that when you peal the onion of life back to the core, you were either created by God or you evolved. Where have you placed your faith?

As always your comments are welcomed. Enjoy this great and wonderful day!