I’ve been asked this question about my new book: “What’s it about?”
I usually give the official answer and say, “This is my twelfth book and it’s about twelve books which have impacted my life. I wrote about key life lessons I learned from those books.”
But my book, Things We’ve Handed Down: Twelve Letters I Leave for You, hands readers many more things. Maybe I can answer the question this way.
Grief. Much grief.
Funerals. Many funerals.
Disappointments. A long list of disappointments.
Waterfalls. Beautiful waterfalls—once two waterfalls in one day.
A hotel room where the key wouldn’t open the door.
Shadows and wind and a Christmas tree and railroad tracks.
Waking early. Writing early. Walking early.
Traffic. Snow. Fog. Breakfast by the mountains. Breakfast at a men’s gathering.
Visiting my wife who was hospitalized three times in one month, five days each time.
Moving into a new office. Moving many books into that new office.
Wounds. The Wounded Healer.
Hope and love and acceptance and forgiveness amid the sadness, the screams, the loneliness.
Time running out. Someone sitting beside us. Final conversation with a friend.
Cakes. Napkins. Books. So many books.
That’s what it’s about.
I hope you’ll read about all these things in this book. And I hope a true, deep, living hope will be handed down to you.
