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,

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 comes from a listener named Natalie Silverstein.

Until my mother passed away in October 2021 at the age of 90, I had spoken to her on the telephone nearly every day of my adult life.

Our conversations covered some combination of the following.

Whether, gossip about who had died, commentary about what she had eaten or was planning to eat,

the whereabouts and appetites of my children, any

planned travel which led us back to weather and the fact that I should not travel because

of potential bad weather. Those chats, always brief and seemingly superficial, were marked

by a pathological normalcy, clinging to the illusion that we had exchanged substantive information.

She needed to assure me that she still had plenty of orange juice and mercifully it wasn't going to rain.

I was often on my computer or scrolling on my phone during those brief conversations, half listening.

The pattern was basically the same every day, so my answers to her questions were wrote.

When she answered the phone, I would greet her in her native language, Ukrainian, and quickly

switched over to English.

I always opened with a phrase that translates to, what are you doing?

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