Hi everyone, welcome to Thanks for being here, a short weekly pad to remind us of the many essential

and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday I'll read a submission from a listener

of Kelly Corrigan Wonders, could be wedding vows or about

mitzvah toast, a eulogy or retirement speech.

We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our better selves and remember our highest values.

We encourage you to share this podcast each week with one person you love, maybe someone

you miss and need to bring closer,

someone you want to feel your appreciation or admiration or both.

This is thanks for being here was submitted by a beautiful writer named Heather Clay. She wrote a book called

Losing Charlotte, a novel that knocked me out. I know Heather a little bit because she

went to Africa with a friend of mine and this was a thanks for being here that she wrote after she returned.

It's called elephants.

When you're sitting in an open-air vehicle while a herd of elephants move past, you whisper.

Cows and calves, a group of 12.

The babies have been gently guided to the inside of the caravan protected by the giant lumbering bodies of the matriarchs.

They look like they're progressing in slow motion, though they're covering ground at speed, eating grassy miles with their long stride so fast that they'll soon be dots in the distance, and we'll wonder how they got there.

Inside the vehicle, with the exception of our two guides, we're all women.

We're 50 or just past it or nearly there, and we're friends on a trip to Uganda and Kenya that took over

a year to plan and varying combined sums of privilege, barter, support,

suppressed guilt, summoned courage, and helpful family members to achieve.

Cameras click.

The wind pushes along the plane.

...