Today’s Thanks For Being Here is the first episode since we here at Kelly Corrigan Wonders made the decision to include many different types of special tributes besides eulogies. We believe sharing tributes of all kinds is the loveliest way to tap into our better selves and remember our highest values.

This episode features a beautiful Bar Mitzvah blessing. It was written and submitted by Kelly’s friend Rebecca for her charming son, Asher.

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If you’ve been listening to our recent climate series, “All Together Now”, you’ve heard from some pretty impressive teens. For those of us listening to their incredible achievements and lovingly wondering about the drive of our own kids, we offer a delightful and hilarious poem by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States called, “To My Favorite 17 year-old High School Girl”.

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Join us as we marvel at the work of a young activist who reminds us that the movement cannot be stopped. Rahul Durai, a junior in high school, is working hard and smart to help Indiana pass a piece of legislation that could turn the tide in coal country. Katharine Hayhoe (professor, evangelical, science mom and bestselling author) says he’s right on the money. To stay informed as we move forward, we encourage every listener to sign up for the free email newsletter on sciencemoms.com. That’s the easiest way to keep learning from a nonpartisan, data driven, footnoted source.

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Once in a great while, maybe even just once in a lifetime, a person comes along who totally changes your perspective, teaches you what matters and gives you an example of what loving your fellow man is supposed to look like. Avery Anderson was that person. She affected people near and far and people around the world showed their love and support of her by wearing rubber bracelets in Avery’s favorite color of teal green. #avethebrave

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Thanks to a brilliant TED talk by Baratunde Thurston, I’m thinking about how people tell the story of what’s happened. I also reached out to my neuroscientist friend Lisa Feldman Barrett to ask her about how the brain processes language. It all sounds very heady and it is, a little, but it’s also something worth thinking about since we live in language.

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Yllka Gashi is Kosovo’s answer to Jennifer Aniston. After years starring in the nation’s most adored sit-com, she left her war torn country to raise her daughter in the US. But a certain story stuck with her: a war widow who eked out a living selling honey from her husband’s beehives. 8 years in the making, HIVE won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and was Kosovo’s official Oscar submission, making it onto the shortlist of films being considered for nomination. This is a conversation for people who wonder about the relationship between hardship, grit and integration.

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12 year-old Jack was an artist, a brilliant reader, a mathematician, a serious student of the Bible and a lover of Legos, baseball and his family. Always conscious of doing the right thing, Jack was the kid you’d want your kids to hang around with to keep them on the straight and narrow. His school friends remember him as smart, kind, funny and the life of the party. Jack was able to take on the joy of others and keep it for himself and instead of allowing the joys and successes of others to diminish him, he allowed it to fill him up.

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Coming off a family wedding, I dug out a copy of The Middle Place to share a passage about learning that my fertility was a casualty of the cancer war and why I had become so convinced that I was meant to have “four by forty.”

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The worst thing that can happen to a mother happened to Cherylann Gengel. And it has changed every moment since. She is one of those high purpose people who makes you question your vocational certainty and wonder what might you be capable of. She is also a living reminder that loss is a territory with many eco-systems and singular viewpoints. If you feel so moved, her organization will put any gifts we give her to very good use.

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Kirsten’s dad Tom was beloved by his kids and grandkids (one of whom couldn’t pronounce the letter “T”, resulting in the nickname Papa Fom). Tom was a man who loved the simple pleasures in life: playing and winning various games, flying balsa wood planes with his family, joking around, drawing and painting, eating candy, playing “house” and “school” with his grandkids or letting them climb all the way up his body to stand on his shoulders. He really loved the little things and everyday moments were his favorites.

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