I Love That I Have You To Help Me.

Happy October to all!

Before we start, introductions are in order. My name is Dahlynn McKowen and I'm part of Kathy's IW team.

For reasons beyond her control, Kathy is unable to type and asked me to pen this column. When she asked me—no, begged me—to take on the task, she carried on over the phone for several minutes as to what was in her head and what I should write about. Then she asked me to "squish" it all down to something reasonable. I just smiled to myself.

Now for some editorializing on my end; "squish" is an appropriate word when describing one of my dearest friends in the entire world, but only when it comes to her communication via writing. She writes like she talks. Seriously. Now, now—there's no need to get defensive. I'm not picking on her. She agrees with me. When working on writing projects with Kathy, she'll put dozens upon dozens of paragraphs on paper to get to that one solid paragraph. She squishes it all together, and for a professional writer and editor like myself, all I can do is sigh, then grin, at her very unique style. Through lots of squishing and squashing, Kathy eventually pulls it off and comes up with an awesome piece of writing, to my amazement.

But I'm getting off track—let's revisit why Kathy can't type this entry. She and her horse Chance had "squishy" intentions that just didn't work together at the right time. While in the saddle, Kathy intended to move one way, and Chance the other. The result? Kathy was thrown to the ground. Chance was okay but showed immediate concern for his "person" (Kathy said he had a look of, "How did you get down there?"). Besides a concussion, bruises and aches all over, Kathy ended up having two surgeries in three weeks' time on her hand. The last one rendered her hand useless for a good while, thus this guest column.

Kathy wanted me to talk about myself and hubby Ken, but that's not my intention (to humor Kathy, pop into http://www.publishingsyndicate.com/ to learn more about us). My intention was to share my feelings about Kathy and the way she communicates with you.

Recently, she wrote a story for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Resolutions in which she told of her desire/resolution to not talk so much. But that would be a HUGE mistake. Through all of her intensity and all of the good and true words that cascade out of her mouth and soul each and every day, her intentions are beyond pure and simple. She talks because she truly cares. She cares like no other person I know on this planet, and her desire to make the world a better place is so completely evident in every thing she does. As our leader in our upcoming release of the Intentional Winning series of books, there's no one better to guide the way—as squishy as it may be some days!

P.S. Kathy didn't read this prior to posting. I love you, Kathy! :)