Hi everyone, welcome to thanks for being here, a short weekly pod 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 need to bring closer.

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

This is thanks for being here.

This week's thanks for being here is a celebration of mothers everywhere.

We are knee deep in sports around here at the moment, college across the NBA playoffs,

all the golf majors. I've noticed that where there are sports, there are adjectives and where there

are championships. Those adjectives are garish and piled high. Players are relentless. Failures are

soul crushing. Achievements are breathtaking. On the golf course alone, there are epic collapses,

pitiless greens, and harrowing sinking traps that wreak havoc on the spirit.

As a long time minder of words, it takes me back. About 20 years ago, my friend Tracy's dad

took a bunch of us out for shrimp scampy at a kitschy seafood place in Berkeley called Spengers.

Tracy's dad, a guy named Bert Yancy, was also a professional golfer who racked up six top five

finishes, including third place in the masters. I was taken with Mr. Yancy, not because he could

play golf, but because he could articulate so vividly what about golf kept him coming back.

That night, he gave a mesmerizing account of how any given round tests everything you've got.

He talked about, quote, the major muscle groups in your legs, back and shoulders, the minor muscles

in your wrist and hand, think of the choreography of movement required to make a putt.

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