Hey, it's Jeff Krasno and welcome to the Commune podcast.

And while part of me wishes that you are listening to this in real time, huddled with

your family in front of a crackling fire and an old radio, mug of hot cider in your hand,

I suspect you're actually on a highway or a treadmill. Nevertheless, it's Christmas time,

and while you might not be listening to this during the holiday season, I hope you'll indulge my

1940s-inspired fantasy. I suppose it's a strange time of a year as we ponder how we went from

celebrating the birth of a spiritual prophet in Nazareth to waiting for a cheery rotund man from the North Pole to shoot down

our chimney. But really, I just want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you

who have supported the podcast and urged me on. It's an honor to do this work. So thank you.

So this week, I'm exploring a different format on the podcast.

I want to share with you a couple of selected writings and speeches that have influenced me in different

ways. And I keep coming back to these over and over, which I suppose tells me something about

myself. I will read them and share some commentary, and I hope that

they'll move you as much as they moved me. This year, I had a friend who lost a daughter.

She was two years old and choked at the breakfast table in front of her parents. Of course,

they did everything they could to save her, but to no avail. And as the father of

three daughters myself, I haven't been able to shake this, to comprehend and accept the

disorder of it. We've spoken a lot about grief on the show and how to find meaning and suffering.

And I came across a letter written by the spiritual teacher Ram Dass that he wrote to a family

who had lost their young daughter, Rachel.

Here is his letter.

Dear Steve and Anita, Rachel finished her work on Earth and left the stage in a manner

...