Thanksgiving and the Art of Loss (#30)

Bidirectional gratitude for having and losing

About a year ago, we said goodbye to a client. The work had grown stale, and our relationships with stakeholders were not as rich as they once were. People came and went. Meetings felt increasingly transactional. We reached a point where the relationship no longer reflected the kind of work we wanted to do or the kind of partnership we wanted to cultivate.

So we closed the door.

At the time, it felt strange. The loss introduced uncertainty and disrupted our routines. Yet it also created something needed: space. In that space, new opportunities took root. We began working with a client in a new industry, whose product team collaborated openly, and whose feedback cycles made us better writers.

We found ourselves grateful for the years we had with the first client. And we found ourselves grateful that the chapter had ended.

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Writers Resist Endings

In the world of technical documentation, endings rarely come with ceremony. Usually, a project slows down, or a client’s priorities shift. A feature might be deprecated, but its documentation lingers in the sidebar for months because no one wants to be the one who removes it. Writers often hold on to engagements long after their usefulness has faded, not because the work benefits the product, but because letting go feels uncomfortable.