Tag Archives: joy

Love Better

LoveGram: What’s to Celebrate?

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Hello beautiful friend. 

Welcome to your Sunday audio LoveGram. 

Today I send you tiki lamps, string lights, and sunflowers. 

I send you a gal in a pink wig and a guy in a pork pie hat on a green tandem bike. 

I send you cream-colored vintage luggage on the steps of a blue and red cottage. 

***

In today’s LoveGram, we are talking about something the world really needs right now: celebration and play! 

In my audio, I share with you some insights I had after making a list of some “must-haves” for my birthday last week. I hadn’t realized that these weren’t just fun party things, they were truly an elixir for my spirit. 

(To listen to the audio, just click over to this page, scroll down, and hit “play” on the audio player.)

***

Here’s what I want you to know: 

Celebration isn’t just for birthdays or other special occasions. 

Celebration doesn’t have to be earned. 

Celebration isn’t just for when we’re feeling happy. 

Celebration is essential for us to create meaning in our lives and to make moments memorable. 

***

After the last two years of so much grief, loss, and disappointment, it is time for us to bring some play and celebration to ourselves and others. 

How will you do that? 

Here are a few questions that may spark some thoughts on your own brand of celebration:

  • When was the last time you celebrated something?
  • What needs to happen for you to plan a celebration? 
  • What kinds of things help you to feel celebratory?
  • What settings feel like a celebration? 
  • Who are your favorite people to celebrate with?
  • Have you ever celebrated something or someone when you were sad? 
  • In the next two weeks, what celebration is coming up? How will you plan for it? 
  • Would you consider celebrating “just because?” What would that look like? 

 

***

I today’s audio I share more ideas with you about creating memorable moments for yourself and people you love.

Listen to your audio LoveGram now! 

***

Be willing to step out of the same-ole, same-ole and create some magic. 

You will be so happy that you did! 

I can’t wait to hear!! 

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. Save the date for Saturday, October 15th at 9am PT/12n ET for our next Secret Agents of Change Mission. Make sure you are signed up on our email list so you receive the information on how to participate. 

Celebrating in the Dark

LoveGram: Be Gentle with Yourself

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Welcome to your Sunday audio LoveGram.

Today I send you the smell of cinnamon.

I send you a warm, gentle hand resting on your shoulder. (And a little loving squeeze!)

I send you a strong and beautiful weeping willow tree, which whispers to you all the ways you are strong and beautiful, too.

***

How are you doing, my sweet friend? How is your heart?

I know there are so many hard things happening in the world — and in many people’s personal lives. I know there are losses of all kinds that everyone is grappling with.

I’m here with you. 

I’ve been talking to you the last couple weeks about my own journey of practicing “not hiding” when things are hard. I’ve been getting out from behind Cardboard Sherry and asking for help from people I love.

This is so important.

In today’s LoveGram, we talk about some other simple practices we can do to take care of ourselves when we are going through difficult emotions or life challenges.

You’ll see that these are also loving ideas you can offer to people you know who may need emotional support.

Because, of course, when we feel uplifted ourselves, we can offer a hand to someone who needs it.

***

You know me, I am all about the really small slices of time that we can live into because tiny moments of care and love for ourselves are always possible. (When I start thinking days or weeks or months, it is too overwhelming!)

A moment of self-care, gentleness, or beauty is always possible.

***

Here’s the link to today’s audio LoveGram.

(To listen to the audio, just click over to this page, scroll down, and hit “play” on the audio player.)

***

I want to thank you for being here with me. Even though we may never have met in person or even corresponded, we are traveling this path together.

We are energetically supporting one another.

You are not alone. Nor, am I.

As Ram Dass so perfectly said it, “We are all just walking each other home.”

Thank you for being by my side, my friend. It matters. YOU MATTER.

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. This past week, the Mango Publishing Author Panel I facilitate was focused on “Navigating Grief of all Kinds.” The two authors shared some simple and gentle tools to supporting ourselves through any kind of grief — death, illness, job loss, divorce, empty nest, disappointment, etc. Watch the replay as a self-care gift to yourself.

 

Celebrating in the Dark

LoveGram: Permission to feel joy

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Hello friend,

I’m sending you big hugs and the word, “chrysalism” from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

This word means “the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.”

I’m sending you that feeling. That warmth. That safety.

I’m sending gratitude for any of us who may be healthy and safe.

(May I never take it for granted in my life.)

***

In today’s audio LoveGram, we talk (again) about what it is like to feel joy when others are suffering.

We talk about what it is like to hold it all.

We talk about being a human being living in a world that is so heart-achingly beautiful and at the same time, so heart-breakingly sad.

We talk about letting our joys fuel us to help others. (We fill up our own wells, so we have plenty to give to others.)

Click here and scroll down to listen. 

***

I hope you will lie down someplace comfortable or sit in a cozy chair with your tea while you listen.

Rituals and small comforts are so important. Give yourself that today, okay?

I love you and I send you big hugs.

Seek Celebration — even in dark corners,

Xo

S.

P.S. In case you really need something uplifting to read — and not just to listen to — did you catch my story the other day about what kind of love and connection is possible in just six minutes? Here’s that link.

P.P.S. Of course, there is also the beautiful book I mentioned in the first line, “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” by John Koenig.

Beauty + Joy, Celebrating in the Dark, Holiday Redux

{Celebration Superstar} Meet Christina!

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I hope you are having a good week, my friend. I hope you are feeling loved and that every day you’ve been noticing something beautiful in the world, maybe a tiny bird or someone’s smile.

If this hasn’t been such a good week, I hope that there’s someone in your life who gives great hugs. And I hope you’ve been extra kind and gentle to yourself. I hope you make some tea with honey. I hope you go look at the stars and wear your favorite knitted scarf. 

No matter how you are feeling when you read this email, I hope it makes you smile and remember that, no matter what, we can create a tiny bit of celebration. (Even when things feel dark and hard. Especially then!)

***

Do you remember last week when I wrote to you about the joy of creating a Super Supper?

(No problem if you don’t remember. Click here to read!)

A few days after I sent it, I received a note from Christina Shook, a friend whom I’ve known for more than 20 years.

Christina wrote to tell me about a “Fakesgiving Celebration” she hosted! (Don’t you just love that name?!)

Christina told me that she’d seen some turkeys on sale at the market and so she bought one. She said, “Then we invited some new friends over for dinner. We did the whole (but simplified) Thanksgiving dinner thing — stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce. We set the table fancy, too, of course. It was a hoot!”

You can imagine how delighted I was to hear Christina’s story.

I immediately emailed her back and asked, “What do you think it was that enabled you to go from ‘Let’s have turkey’ to ‘Let’s have Fakesgiving?’ How did you make that delightful leap?”  

Christina responded, “The leap from turkey to Thanksgiving seemed like a clear path. What are you going to do with 20 pounds of turkey?! You kinda have to share it. Turkey is a naturally celebratory dish that must be shared!”

She said, “One thing leads to another, just like how you described your Super Supper. It’s like that book, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie…”

(Ha ha. In that book, a boy gives a cookie to a mouse and it leads to a glass of milk and a straw and more … and more!)

Christina gave some details: “First the turkey. Then the guests. Then the big tablecloth. Then the candles. Pretty soon you’ve got a Fakesgiving happening!”

She said, “Our friends enjoyed it entirely and they brought the pies. And, of course, we all expressed gratitude and made toasts— which you kinda have to do, with the whole table set with bounty and friends.”

***

Bravo, Christina! What a Celebration Superstar, right? She took an ordinary turkey and turned it into an extraordinary Fakesgiving dinner filled with special touches, joy, gratitude, toasts, and bounty! 

Here are some elements of this story that delight me:

  • Christina followed each of the little ideas that dropped in. She didn’t say, “Nah, that’s too much trouble to get out the good tablecloth or to dig out the candles.”
  • Christina named the event. Sometimes, simply putting a name to something cements it in our minds as unique and special. We see it differently.
  • Christina invited others into the joy.
  • Christina made sure to pause during that dinner — offering toasts! — to acknowledge the moment and to intentionally celebrate her friends and the bounty.
  • Christina knew that her story would make me happy, so she took the time to write and tell me, thus spreading even more joy!

[Here’s a message just for her: Christina, I am celebrating YOU today! I love this story. I love that you followed the bread crumb trail of creating joy! Woot woot!]

***

  • I also want to celebrate a couple other things that I know about Christina. For one, that she is a talented photographer who intentionally brings beauty, love, and compassion to her work.
  • I am also celebrating that she is a caring and loving mother and wife. Through the years, she’s always kept family at the center of her world and have made people a priority in her life.
  • Christina has also been a living example of “Say it Now,” by reaching out to me often to thank me for my work or to request a letter for someone during my Birthday Kindness Project.

***

Please join me today in celebrating Christina.

I hope her story might inspire YOU in some brand new way this week. Will you allow a Give a Mouse a Cookie experience to come to life in some unexpected way?  

Listen, this pandemic has weighed us all down with so much grief, illness, and discouragement.

YOU can be the one to lift others up. YOU can be the one to bring tiny moments of you. They don’t have to look like a big ole turkey and a table full of friends. Those moments can be 100% unique to YOU. 

I started this letter to you with the word, “notice.” I want to end it with that same really important word.

Please notice what wants to come through you. Notice the little nudges you get. Follow them. Trust them.

Look for the sparkles and tiny pinpricks of light. They will lead you to that experience of turning ordinary days into an extraordinary life. 

I love you and am cheering you on, always.

Thanks for who you are. YOU  MATTER!

Seek celebration — even in the dark corners,

xo Sherry

Beauty + Joy

LoveGram: What is Possible?

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Hello Friend!

Today I send you the sunrise.

I send you a fluffy, yellow,  baby chick.

I send you an unexpected check in the mail.

I send you a hot loaf of bread, fresh out of the oven.

I send you a shiny, red RESET button.

***

Today’s audio LoveGram is all about new possibility.

It is about YOU possibility.

I hope you will listen to this audio and join me in a 2022 restart.

To hear it, simply click here. Then, scroll down on that page you’re taken to until you see the audio player and the download link. You can listen right there or download to listen on the go!

***

We are two weeks into the brand new year called 2022 and my LoveGram today is all about allowing ourselves — no wait, more than that—commanding ourselves to step into what is possible.

I know these past two years have been filled with grief, illness, and fear. I know that you and your family may be discouraged and disappointed. I know it is hard.

But listen, you are here, reading my words, for a reason.

Right?

Something called to you about my mission of feeling more celebration and appreciation.

Something in you knows that there is beauty in our lives, even when we are sad, scared, or uncertain.

Something in you resonates with my own story of that deep depression, when the only thing that saved me was a single pinprick of light. And then the next. And the next.

One moment at a time.

***

Honeybun, I see your beautiful heart and I understand your deep desire to keep on finding the goodness and the joy in life.

I’m calling on you to step up and be an ambassador of love, appreciation, and celebration.

I’m imploring you to be the person in your community who speaks about the beauty you see, who expresses gratitude, who makes people laugh.

(By the way, I suspect you already are that person, aren’t you? Think about it. Maybe you simply need to acknowledge it more. Or maybe you need to lean into it more.)

The world needs you.

***

So, my friend, let’s all join hands and ask this question together: “What is possible in this next moment of time?”

That’s all I am asking of you: to look at this next moment and consider what kind of love, what kind of appreciation, and what kind of light you can bring.

Here are three possibilities for you:

  • If you’re having a hard time and everything feels bleak, what one tiny movement is possible in order to bring yourself a little comfort or uplift?
  • If you’ve got a little bit of energy and you feel okay, what is possible in order to bring some light and love to one other person?
  • If you are feeling great, what is possible in order to bring that bright energy to a group of people?

2022 is a brand new set of pages on our calendars. Demand of yourself a brand new outlook.

We can be the ones to help set a tone that is positive and joyful. Even if the world doesn’t look exactly like we hoped it would right now.

I hope you’ll listen to today’s LoveGram.

And I hope that you will fuel 2022 with renewed beauty and joy.

**

I love you and am so grateful to you.

Thank you for being by my side throughout this pandemic.

Thank you for choosing to step out of the cookie cutter life and be courageous enough to live out loud who you really are.

Who you are is absolutely amazing. (Even when you don’t think so.)

You make a difference. (Even when you don’t think so.)

You MATTER! (Even when you don’t think so.)

I KNOW SO! 

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. Want to read more about ways to start anew in 2022? Check out my latest guest post on Kind Over Matter: Re-Start, Re-Set, Re-Emerge. I give some practical how-to’s!

 

 

Beauty + Joy, Express yourself

LoveGram: More YOU!

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Hey, beautiful friend.

Today, I send you the exuberance of jumping up and down, arms high above your head, and energy vibrating in your body.

I send you the sky —  how open it is, how receiving. How it promises us that so much more is possible than we know, or that we can see, in the moment.

I send you my bird friends who were crowing loudly and excitedly today as if they were sharing a message with us all—  that it’s good to be excited. It’s good to feel good. It’s good to make a joyful noise.

***

Today’s audio LoveGram is a continuation of our conversation last week, which was 100 Percent YOU.

We’re continuing to look at what is it that stops us from being who we are, from having the experiences that we want, and from feeling the joy of simple things that call to us.

We’re looking at how that Squawky Polly in our head keep us from joy. Like for me, there’s a song that I want to listen to over and over again, and I get told by silly Squawky Polly that there’s something wrong with that.

But I do it anyways.

And, what harm is there, right?

In fact, it is the opposite: there is joy.

[By the way, you know where the expression, “Squawky Polly” comes from? When my son was about ten years old, I was explaining about  Monkey Mind and the voices in our head. I told him that I wished I could come up with an original phrase since Monkey Mind is used so much.

I don’t know how he did it, but Kayne came up with Squawky Polly. It is really fitting because those voices in our heads can be pretty darned repetitive and noisy, can’t they?!]

***

In today’s message I also share with you a conversation I’m in the middle of with my friend Maggie about changing things up that we normally do so that we can live a life that has more connection, less stress, and less debt.

We’re talking about questioning things and looking around with new eyes to see what do I want to let go of in my life that is weighing me down?

We have so many cultural obligations and conventions and we often forget to question whether they’re really serving us or supporting us anymore

And at the same time, we can ask, what are the things that lift me up? What are the things that energize me, that bring me joy?

[Make a list! And gift yourself with them, as often as you remember!]

***

I hope you’ll listen to today’s LoveGram.

And I hope that you will start 2022 off with a commitment to living YOUR life.

Remember Bronnie Ware and the Five Regrets of the Dying?  The top regret of people on their deathbeds is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

I don’t want that for you. (Or me!)

I want you —right now, starting now — and every day —  to feel as if you’re living the life that is YOURS to live, that is coming through YOU.

I want you to feel alive in the world in a way that is You-Unique.

***

I love you and am so grateful to you.

Thank you for being by my side throughout this pandemic. Thank you for helping me walk through all of the grief, uncertainty, and disappointment with a magnifying glass that amplifies the joys that are also present. Especially the joy of being connected to kindred spirits!

Thank you for choosing to step out of the cookie cutter life and be courageous enough to live out loud who you really are.

Who you are is perfect.

You make a difference.

You MATTER!

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

Beauty + Joy, Express yourself

LoveGram: What Moves You?

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Hello wonderful friend.

Thank you for opening this email. Thank you for reading and/or listening to my LoveGrams. Thank you for being someone with a warm heart and unique spirit. Thank you for your desire to live life with as much love, zest, color, and connection as possible.

Thank you for being YOU and for being here, with me.

Remember what Ram Dass said, “We are all just walking each other home.” Yup. You, me, everyone — on the path together, hand in hand.

 

***

Today, I send you an old-fashioned, egg-shaped paper piñata filled with white feathers.

I send you the first notes of a song you love, which come dancing out of your car stereo just as you roll down the window and breathe in the fresh air.

I send you the way it feels to raise your arms over your head in bliss, shaking your head ‘n hips, and letting yourself be moved by the beat.

I send you a rainbow on your wooden floors, a little sign from life letting you know that childhood wonder still exists.

 

***

Today’s LoveGram is brought to you courtesy of a music video I’ve watched countless times this week.

It is a LoveGram in service of paying attention to what moves us.

(To listen to the audio, just scroll down on that page and click play on the audio player below when you see it!)

 

***

This week, I’m challenging you to pay attention to what makes you feel most alive in your life. What people? What colors? What conversations? What music? What birds? What flowers? What scents? What clothes? What art? What books? What conversations?

Please listen and do this: follow the thread of what moves you. Go where it wants to take you. Trust and lean into your life force.

There are so many pulls to be and do certain things that are what everyone else is doing. There can be voices in our heads telling us which way to go, what to say, how to feel.

This week, your job is to experiment with being moved by life. (Or, as my mentor, Brendon Burchard says, “Feel the day.”)

If you get a nudge to listen to a song again, do it. If you get a nudge to tell your friend Suzy about that hummingbird moment, do it. If you get a nudge to read a poem or listen to a song or reach out to a long-lost friend, PLEASE do it.

 

***

We are on this carousel ride of life for such a very brief time.

Let yourself choose the white horse with the blue ribbon if that is the one that calls to you. Or, choose the black stallion that goes up and down. Or, bring a blanket and ride in the carriage pulled by two blue dragons if that’s where you want to be. Heck, feel free to jump on that silly leaping rabbit wearing a top hat, if that is the ride you want to be on!

Your challenge this week is to listen closely, lean in, and explore what your spirit is excited about.

Will you do that? Will you tell me about it? Email me and share one thing that brought you to life this week, okay?! I can’t always respond to every email, but you can bet that I read and enjoy every single one! And when you write it, it helps to anchor in what you are experiencing.

Let yourself be in conversation with what moves you! Watch where it takes you! Chance are, you will be astonished.

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. Here’s the video I am enchanted with. Watch from minute 2 for about 30 seconds to see the magical piñata moment!!

P.P.S. AFTER you watch that little segment in the video, I want you to consider what happened to me just minutes after I recorded the audio and wrote the first draft of this LoveGram. Ready? I was pulling the comforter out of the duvet cover so I could wash it, when suddenly a flurry of white feathers poofed up around me and then fell like snow. I got to be the girl in the video! I’m not making this up. THAT is what happens when you get into conversation with something that moves you!

 

Beauty + Joy, Celebrating in the Dark, Kindness as a Gift

Celebration Superstar

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In this week’s audio LoveGram, I tell you all about Carolyn and why she is such a Celebration Superstar.

Here’s the gist of it: Carolyn is someone who really FEELS life. She usually wears her emotions on her sleeve and it is a beautiful thing to get to experience.

All around us, people are walking around pretending that they don’t care, that things don’t impact them, that it is just another ho-hum day.

Carolyn reminds us that to be human is to experience life by allowing all our emotions.

Carolyn is touched by life, and when we are in her presence, we get to be touched by life, too.

It is, to me, a true form of authentic celebration.

You’ll hear more about Carolyn in the audio LoveGram if you click the link up above. 

Beauty + Joy, Celebrating in the Dark

LoveGram: Grief and Celebration

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Today I send you that feeling when it is pouring outside, and you hear the crash of thunder, but you are safe and warm in your favorite reading chair.

I send you that feeling of enjoying a double scoop of ice-cream when suddenly the top scoop shploops to the ground, leaving you with that momentary sense of how things slip can away before our very eyes.

I send you the way it feels to be grieving the death of someone you deeply love and you remember a funny story so you tell it to your best friend and you both laugh, even while the tears are still wet on your face.

 

💥💓💥

 

Today’s LoveGram is based on a poem by my dear friend, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Here’s the poem I read in my audio LoveGram.

To hear the audio LoveGram, click on the link, then scroll down on the page it sends you to, you’ll see the audio player.

Here’s the poem I read in that audio:

Strange Bedmates

By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

 

grief and celebration

share the same bed—

one keeps stealing the blanket

the other

keeps knitting a beautiful new one

 

💥💓💥

 

There you have it. Grief and celebration. Two sides of the same human coin.

I didn’t plan any of this. But it just so happens that I am creating this LoveGram for you Friday morning because I am traveling to see Rosemerry this weekend. When you receive this on Sunday morning, I will be on a plane to Colorado to not only see my friend, but actually meet her in person for the very first time.

My meeting Rosemerry is everything that I am talking to you about in today’s audio. I am traveling to be with her in grief over the biggest loss imaginable. I am traveling to be with her in what hopefully will be a circle of tremendous love and light as her friends gather for her birthday.

To me, being present in all of the feelings of being human, to allow ourselves the whole range of human experience is authentic celebration.

We must let ourselves feel the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows. We can help each other through the heavy, hard ones and we can celebrate together in the light ones.

 

💥💓💥

 

Today’s LoveGram is also based on my October Celebration Superstar, Carolyn. I tell you a little about her in my audio. But for those of you who may not listen, what you need to know about her is that she is a superstar at being a human being. Carolyn’s emotions live at the surface and they spring out all the time. She used to apologize for crying so much and so easily. I hope she doesn’t do that anymore.

Because she is a shining example of allowing the whole range of human emotions to live in her.

Carolyn is in my coaching group and I have had the opportunity over the past year and a half to watch her BE HUMAN in such an authentic way. To me, this is the celebration.

In a world where people walk around, noses in their electronic devices, we can go hours before seeing expressions of humanness. Think about how a spontaneous bright smile, the sudden springing forth of tears, or even the flash of anger can connect us to our hearts and to our humanness.

I encourage you to allow yourself to feel.

Allow yourself to be human.

Because, you know what? You are a fabulous human being. I love you.

Thank you for being by my side for this journey.

 

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. Subscribe to Rosemerry’s daily poem here.

P.P.S. The music I played at the start of my audio LoveGram.

 

 

Kindness as a Gift, Laughter

Lovegram: Open the Door!

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Hello and Happy Sunday …

Today I am sending you the happy faces of Arnold and his two brothers — photo above.

I am sending you the quiet ease of a Sunday and the possibility of a shared meal with family or some space alone to read and reflect.

I am sending you renewed enthusiasm for the beauty of a single flower, that resilient old oak tree, or a hummingbird’s zing.

💥💓💥

Today, my LoveGram is about the gift of warmth, friendliness, and opening the door to connection. 

Hear today’s Audio LoveGram now! 

Just scroll down on this page until you see the audio player. Click play! Voila!

After you listen to today’s LoveGram, consider some places in your life where you may want to bring a little extra spirited enthusiasm. 

Can you be the one in your family or at work to lift everyone’s mood with your enthusiasm? Can you bring a smile to a stranger’s face on the bus or whom you pass on your walk? 

How would you intentionally bring some extra zest to YOURSELF?

We can practice feeling connected. We can practice feeling energized. We can practice being more open, loving and kind. We can practice small shifts and notice the impact. 

I’ve been creating these Sunday LoveGrams since March of 2020. Having you here with me throughout this pandemic has been so important. Being together in our experiences is truly a gift.

Thank you.

Seek celebration — even in dark corners,

xo Sherry

 

P.S. That’s Arnold and his brothers in the photo up above. I was so delighted by their bright energy and joyful demeanors, that I had asked them if I could take a photo of them together. I’m glad I did, because I texted it to Arnold while we were still chatting so they could have a souvenir of their time together. He texted me later and now we can stay connected! Arnold gave me permission to use the photo and share this story with you.

 

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