The Best Things in Life...

Are friends.

Followed by running, writing, and dogs, though not necessarily in that order. They all rank high up there on my list.

When you have any combination of them, it's pretty hard to beat.

Today I met with Libby James, a longtime writing and running friend in Fort Collins. We used to both write a monthly running column in the local paper along with our writer/artist friend Tom Riggs. We have a lot in common, mainly writing and running, but Libby is much more prolific than I am when it comes to writing.

She has published several books, I am not sure how many but she's written about running, and a number of other topics and genres, like historical fiction- her latest work. She's a great writer and that's not even the tip of the iceberg as far as her life stories. She happens to be a multiple-time age group world record holder at running, too.

I've always been inspired in running by the older runners who keep going, into their 70s, 80s, and even beyond. Libby falls squarely in that category although I wouldn't even try to categorize her. She's a lively, focused, interesting, and talented human being who has contributed great things to the world, including her offspring.

I met her at her house and we took off for a few laps around the cemetery, which happens to be one of our favorite places to run, another thing we share. Then we came back to her house where she made tea and we sat and talked books and plotted schemes around our favorite topics.

I got a peek at her latest book which hooked me within the first page, and I plan to read it as soon as I catch my breath around here. She's been at this a lot longer than I have been, and actually has her own shelf of local authors' books, she created a small lending library. I'm excited to be adding Navigating the C to her collection.

On our run around the cemetery we talked about our friend Morgan whom we lost last January. I felt like she was listening. After our run I kept seeing the name "Morgan" everywhere, like the directional sign near the university pointing to Morgan Library, and bright lime green colored objects, which was her favorite color. I realized the last time I saw Libby was last spring at Morgan's memorial. I've been intending to get together with her and the book kept taking over all my thoughts and plans.

We talked about how important it is to take the time to get together, these connections and conversations are so important, more important than the many distractions in everyday life.

I started this morning missing Donut Friday because I was up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Maybe it was just being excited because before bedtime I found out that my books were being overnighted from Amazon in time for my book signing this Sunday. They have been super slow on production and last week when I checked, they told me I wouldn't receive them until January 31 or February 1. My book signing is on the 28th, and I ordered them on the 10th, with expedited shipping.

But they came through for me. (I've actually been very impressed with almost everything they do at Amazon around the book creation process.) When I arrived home from Libby's, the books were waiting for me!!

And I always have plenty of help with the boxes.

It was one of the best mornings I've had in quite some time (would have been 100% perfect if I'd made Donut Friday!). Ready to start getting this book out there to see the light of day in the world. I have more to say about that, in a future blogpost. For now, you can find Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care, on Amazon.