This is the first episode of our new series Thanks For Being Here. It will be a very short pod that comes out every Sunday morning as Sundays are, for a lot of people, a time of reflection, a time to let go of the day to day and to touch base with what matters, what will matter and what will have mattered.

The answer to that question for me is often found in ceremonies. I could literally watch strangers get married once a week, and I'm even more effected by funerals, sitting in a service, taking in the story of one life, just another ordinary person who they loved, who loved them. I feel a clarity and direction that I often can't find in the daily push and pull and eulogies in particular are about the most succinct source of direction I can think of.

So, I asked readers and listeners who have lost someone to share their eulogies and every week I'll read one here so that we don't forget, there is a point to the pain, that we have much to offer, that we affect each other and that ordinary lives are really kind of exquisite when you look at them closely.

This first episode features a eulogy beautifully written by my editor at Random House, Andy Ward, to honor his father.