Don,

This week’s Mindful Midweek is a new favorite of mine. The ending was surprising – shocking, even – and you didn’t use a technique that a professional writer would consider to be contrived, borrowed, or predictable. It was an altogether new kind of thing. And that just NEVER happens.

Wow. I really, really, really didn’t see those last three paragraphs coming.

When I got to the part where you say, “But there was a stronger voice within me that said…” I knew – absolutely knew – that you were going to remind us that “just being there” is often all a friend really needs from us and most of us probably say too much, too often, and we need to quit thinking that we have all the answers. And I agree with all that. I believe it to be wise counsel. I should definitely shut up, listen more and talk less. Then, in just three short sentences, you wrap the whole thing up with an outcome and a question that leaves the reader stunned and reeling, asking themselves all kinds of questions for which they can have no certain answers, frantically re-examining all their warm and comfortable preconceptions.

Don, you didn’t tell us what you think. You made us think for ourselves.
I stand and applaud, take my hat off and wave it toward the stage, then turn around from my seat on the front row and shout to the rest of the audience, “Now THAT’s writing, friends. That’s it, right there. Take a close look because you might not see another example like this for a long, long time. That’s writing!”

Sometimes your ability to tell a story – combined with that breathtakingly vulnerable brand of humility that I’ve seen in only one other person in my whole life – just rocks me.

NEW SUBJECT: Your book is getting better and better. Thank you for the updated copy you sent. I like all the subtle changes. But if you don’t squeeze this week’s story about Robbie in there somewhere, I’m going to… well, I’ll… I’m… well, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do.

Please add this new chapter into your book.

Don, the work of your life is still ahead of you.
You are a writer. A gifted writer.

And people desperately need to hear what you have to say.

And you have only just begun to write.

RHW

BELOW:  Don Kuhl, Mia Erichson, Jeffrey Eisenberg