My amazing mom taught me many things through the years. Some of the most impactful lessons were those she taught me through how she lived her life. The value of her friendships with other women is one of those important lessons. She maintained close relationships with friends from her youngest years and never stopped making new friends along the way. Whether she was golfing, playing bridge, meeting for morning coffee, making trips to the casino, cheering at hometown sporting events, or taking her daily walk, Mom always had friends by her side.
 
The way these quality friendships Mom nurtured added so much love and laughter to her life provided a large dose of the inspiration behind The Kaleidoscope Girls, my women’s friendship series.

One weekend during the summer of 2017, I helped Mom prepare for a brunch she wanted to host at their house for her friends. Two of her sisters were also visiting from out of town, and her current medication combination was allowing her to feel almost like herself.

I dug out her 40-cup coffee urn from the basement and got it brewing. We arranged trays of baked goods and a bowl of fruit for snacking. But the task that remains the most vivid in my mind these many years later was preparing the coffee cups.

I climbed up on the countertop and started pulling down her special mugs. Once I’d set out quite a few, I glanced over at her, thinking it would probably be enough. She shook her head, assuring me we would need more. I wasn’t so sure, but I kept pulling.

She was right, of course. At the designated time, her girlfriends started arriving. I remember standing back as her front door kept swinging open, thinking how incredibly lucky Mom was to have so many dear friends. Most of the women didn’t even knock. They came right in, feeling at home. There was laughter, eating, and plenty of visiting. We even snapped a picture of at least part of the fun group.
​

That luncheon was likely the last time many of her friends gathered in her home, all at once. This week would have been Mom’s 81st birthday, but she passed away in December 2017. I try hard to focus on her birthday, and not the day she left us.

Mom taught me how rich life can be with lots of friends around you. I happily called her my best friend. She was so much better at making time for friends than I am, but I’ll keep working on it. Now when I see pictures of her friends still gathering and having fun, I can’t help but wish Mom still sat among them, laughing and visiting. But I also enjoy seeing them still getting together, supporting and enjoying their friendships.

Thank you for teaching us that life is always better with friends, Mom.

​Always cheering you on, Kim

​Many of our most helpful mentors may never even learn our names.
 
My ideal mornings kick off with pen, paper, and a book. The paper is in my gratitude journal and the pen captures one page of reflections on things I’m blessed to have in my life. The books are non-fiction and touch on things I want to learn more about. I don’t binge read these like I do with fiction. Sometimes I’ll only have ten minutes to read, but eventually, over days and weeks, I finish the books at a pace that allows for contemplation and learning.

​This morning, I finished reading “Pilgrimage—Lessons learned from solo walking three ancient ways” by J.F. Penn. The author, Joanna Penn, is a mentor to me, although we’ve never met. This award-winning book captured her solo walking of the Pilgrims’ Way, the St Cuthbert’s Way, and the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Route.
 
Besides her fiction and non-fiction books, Joanna is the creator and host of a podcast named “The Creative Penn Podcast”. I discovered her weekly show in about 2016, when first considering self-publishing. Like my gratitude and morning reading, her podcast is a regular part of my routine.
 
No one has taught me more about the world of publishing than Joanna Penn.
 
I’d never thought much about pilgrimages before reading her book, and had only ever heard of the Camino. I bought the book to support Joanna. She’d talked about these three long solo walks, before and after she went on each one during 2020 through 2022, as well as her desire to capture her experiences in a book. Once she’s written her words, she trys new ways of turning those words into beautiful books. She generously invites her listeners along during her projects, and we all learn.
 
Joanna keeps her eyes on the future and an optimistic approach to experimenting with new tools as they emerge in the self-publishing world and beyond, instead of fretting over what many perceive as threats to the industry. She helps me feel excited about the endless possibilities, too.

​Why am I sharing this with you?
 
A book about pilgrimages might seem niche on the surface, appealing to a narrow band of readers. But “Pilgrimage” is about so much more than long, painful walks and blisters. While Joanna piqued my interest about a pilgrimage of my own someday, her honest and relatable reflections on the emotional challenges like growing older and menopause, the world locking down in mid-2020, and a lengthy recovery from COVID, all gave the story a depth I wasn’t expecting. Colored photographs throughout her book give glimpses into the beauty and history she encountered along the way. Joanna skillfully weaves both the practical with the thought-provoking.
 
Joanna launched “Pilgrimage” using a Kickstarter campaign. The pretty hardback version I ordered has quality paper and a foil-stamped cover under the dust jacket. Book Vault, the printer she used, is working hard to make special touches such as sprayed edges and beautiful end-papers available to the print-on-demand market. I love gorgeous, vintage books with these types of features, and I can’t wait to experiment with some of them in my own products.
 
I’m interested in publishing. Joanna generously shares her hard-earned wisdom on the topic with me and thousands of other hungry writers consistently, year in and year out. I benefit from lots of the free content she shares, but I also support her financially through her Patreon account and her Kickstarter campaigns. This is how Joanna earns her living, and my career benefits from her efforts. We both win.
 
Joanna lives in England. I live in the United States. Our paths may never cross, but I hope to have the chance to thank her in person someday for all she’s done for me. While the online world can be rife with negativity, the work of kind, generous people like Joanna, who can literally change your life for the better, hang out there, too. Seek out the people who add richness to your life and do your best to ignore the noise.
 
What type of things would you like to learn more about? With a little investigative work, I suspect you’ll also be able to find helpful souls out there who can take your hand and open up a whole new world for you, even if you only ever join their circle from afar. 

​If you are interested in checking out “Pilgrimage” or any of Joanna’s other books, here is a link to her online store. Her books are also available on  other online vendor platforms.
​

Always cheering you on,    Kimberly

​Be honest. What runs through your mind when you first take your seat on an airplane? Do you hope the stranger sitting next to you will be a brilliant conversationalist and the two of you will enjoy a lively conversation for the duration of your upcoming flight? Or do you avert your eyes, pull out a book, and pop some earbuds in, sending the signal that you’re not interested in small talk?

I default to option #2 most often, although I do like to at least say ‘hello’ before I bury my nose in my latest read. But magic can unfold when we open ourselves up to conversation.

Three years ago, in September 2018, I found myself on a flight next to a woman I didn’t know. My daughters were elsewhere on the plane. It was a spur-of-the-moment trip and our seats weren’t together. I likely exchanged a quick greeting with the woman, but nothing more. I was mapping out the logistics of the launch of my second novel. She was busy on her phone.

Eventually I noticed she was typing paragraph after paragraph on her tiny device. This intrigued me. I think I may have even asked if she was pulling together a blog post, although I don’t remember exactly how that initial conversation started. I do remember mentioning I was a new author, something I wouldn’t normally tell a stranger.

There can be rare moments in life when we click with someone we only just met. We clicked.

She said her name was Tara. Tara talked about her passion around the retreats she ran in California involving horses. It sounded fascinating. She mentioned her grown son, and how proud she was of his accomplishments. I could relate. We were traveling to my daughter’s interview at a graduate school, and I was a proud momma as well. I think Tara was traveling home after visiting her son. Again, I’ve lost the threads of our conversation, but our chat would be the start of a budding friendship that’s turned out to be a true blessing in my life.

​Our flight was running late. We both had tight connections with little chance of making our next flights. I gave her one of my shiny new business cards, and she gave me her contact information. Often this will be the end of this type of exchange, but for us, it was just the beginning.

Luck was smiling down on us that day, and we made our connection. Tara did, too.

We had a wonderful time on our girls’ trip. We dipped our toes in the ocean (always a treat since we live in land-locked North Dakota!), my daughter’s interview went well, and she’s now starting her third year in the program she interviewed for on the day after that fateful flight.   

After we got home, I checked out Tara’s website, curious. It surprised and saddened me to learn she was in the midst of a fight for her very life. She was battling cancer (something she never mentioned during our initial visit) and trying to save her Wind Horse Sanctuary.

Tara is very active on social media, and I’ve slowly gotten to know more about this woman I randomly met on an airplane. She’s articulate, funny, supportive, and incredibly brave.

We stay in touch. She’s generously taught me valuable tidbits about the various social media platforms. She watched a video of the very first podcast interview I ever gave. In the episode, I talked about my path to becoming a published author. She reached out to me after watching it, intrigued, and we continued to communicate back and forth.

Her health struggles escalated, and I had grave concerns for Tara. To make matters worse, she shared that her mother was battling cancer as well.

We live very different lives, Tara and I. She moved to beautiful Kauai, is a fiercely independent woman, and lives in a yurt surrounded by pets and horses. We marvel at the differences in our surroundings, particularly in the winter, when her weather is mild and ours is ridiculously frigid.

When COVID struck the world, she put out an offer to say a special prayer for anyone in need. She was traveling to a sacred location along the ocean and wanted to offer hope and encouragement. It was April 2020, and my father was in the hospital, suffering from this scary new virus and fighting for his life. I reached out to Tara, told her what was happening, and she offered up a special prayer for Dad (Dad recovered!)

I felt compelled to send Tara a copy of my first book, Whispering Pines. I hoped she’d find the story fun and uplifting, something to make her smile, to entertain her on hard days. Her cancer treatments are tough and ongoing.

She’d mentioned a desire to write her own memoir, and I encouraged her. If ever a story needed to be told, it was Tara’s. She has a knack for finding the gifts hidden within her struggles. She shares those struggles with the world, not for sympathy, but as an example of how to overcome life’s challenges. Tara is like a candle, bringing light to a world that has far too many shadows.

We both went on living our lives, and Tara began pulling her memoir together. Since I had a few novels out by that time, she’d reach out occasionally with questions about the more technical aspects of writing a book. I knew she’d enrolled in an online course, much as I had when I was first starting out, but I don’t believe we ever discussed the specifics.

Then something crazy happened. When she reached the end of Whispering Pines, she read the Acknowledgement section. It’s a long section given it was my very first book, and I was bursting with excitement and gratitude when I finally reached that last step.

We were both in for a big shock. Unbeknownst to either of us, we’d ended up taking the same online course for self-publishing. That was a fun coincidence. But the shocker came when she read the ‘thank you’ I’d included in the back of my book to Ramy Vance, my book coach.

She was smack dab in the middle of her own coaching sessions with Ramy!

What are the odds? We took that same program, a couple of years apart, and they have lots of coaches. I love when things like this happen. And I’m so proud of Tara. Despite many obstacles, she finished her amazing book and published it in August: Grace, Grit & Gratitude-A Cancer Thriver’s Journey from Hospice to Full Recovery with the Healing Power of Horses, author Tara Coyote. The book is selling like gangbusters, as it should. Tara has faced incredible odds, and she keeps coming out on top. 
​

​A few weeks ago, we made another trip out to the western US, this time to visit our daughter at the school she interviewed with during the same trip when I met Tara.

I thought it was fitting to get a picture of me showing off Tara’s wonderful new book while on the plane.  I hope I played a small part in helping her bring her story to the world.

Tara’s also been working her way through all of my books. She reached out to me recently to discuss my approach to a difficult death scene in my latest book “Celia’s Gifts.” My ongoing communications with Tara remind me that the fresh paths we choose to travel can lead to new friendships. We’re learning together as we navigate the complicated world of publishing.

I’m so glad I didn’t stick my nose in a book three years ago and ignore the woman sitting next to me on that plane!

I invite you to check out Tara’s story. I hope she’ll inspire you, too. You’ll find her all over social media, bringing attention to her many important causes. My favorite place to stay up to date with her is on Instagram at @taracoyote and @gracegritgratitudebook (be careful not to click on one of the unscrupulous people that are coming out of the woodwork pretending to be her now that she is seeing success with her book!)
​
If you’d like to check out her book, here is a link you may find helpful:

I encourage you to keep watching for opportunities to connect with positive, uplifting people like Tara in what is becoming an increasingly divisive world. There are countless wonderful people out there, and you never know where a simple hello might take you.

​You just might find some magic of your own!   Kim

What is it about puppies that make them so irresistible? I think it's the eyes, looking at you with unconditional love. Throw in floppy ears, and plump little paws and our hearts melt.

We don't currently have a dog of our own. We used to, but when we lost our thirteen-year-old Brittany named Winnie, that was it. We had three active kids, two full-time jobs, and firsthand knowledge of how much work a dog can be.

Oh, the kids tried. They hinted, begged, and would stoop so low as to show us pictures of dogs looking for new homes, meant to sway our "hard no." But we stood firm. The closer we got to all of them leaving for college, the more convinced we were that we didn't want to be tied down at this stage of life. And before you start guessing that I'll be wrapping up this post by admitting to finally caving on the whole "we should get a dog" thing, don't. We haven't.

I've figured out a better solution – once the kids leave the house, watch as they get their own dogs! I can get on board with the idea of "grand puppies." The little cutie pies come to visit, maybe spend a few days, cuddle with me while I write or watch television, and infuse the house with laughter over their antics. We miss them when they leave, but then we're free to go about our business, knowing they are in the loving hands of our kids.

I imagine this is very similar to how one feels once grand babies enter the picture, but we aren't there
yet.

Let me introduce you to three special little dogs that each hold a piece of my heart these days. 
​

Zoey, the Yorkie poo with wild hair and a big heart, actually belongs to my mother-in-law. When Zoey comes for a visit, she often stays for a week or two. She loves to come to stay with us. She literally goes nuts, jumping in the air and spinning in circles when my husband picks her up. She'd qualify as the grandmother of the group, having been around the longest.

Then Mollie entered the picture. Mollie is the sweetest little pug/chihuahua mix, adopted by our daughter's boyfriend as a rescue. While we might have thought him a tad bit crazy to take on the responsibilities of a dog while still in college, she has definitely become part of the family. Her chill nature and love of cuddles make her the perfect little companion.

Zoey and Mollie can co-exist by merely ignoring each other if they ever happen to be visiting at the same time. But now a new little bundle of boundless energy has entered the fray.

Meet Luna, our son's birthday present to his wife in early July. Luna, now a twelve-week-old corgi puppy, is a darling little stinker with trademark ears and sharp little teeth. As is the case with all babies, everything ends up in her mouth: sticks, leaves, fingers, and toes. And she's fast. She plays hard and sleeps hard – on her schedule, not yours!

Having three little dogs that visit regularly seems like a win-win to me!

I suspect there will be more "grand puppies" in the future. Our youngest daughter, a die-hard dog lover if there ever was one, has already put in a request for a puppy for her college graduation gift in about four years. A hunting dog will probably also enter the mix at some point.

It hasn't taken the kids long to gain a whole new appreciation of the level of care dogs require. There have already been sleepless nights, hefty vet bills, and worry when one of them is sick. But I don't think there are any regrets.

This afternoon, as we relaxed on the patio at the lake and watched Luna knock a water bottle around, I asked our kids what they like most about dogs. Why do they love dogs so much?

Their responses warmed my heart:

• Nothing beats a dog's excitement when they greet you as you walk through the door at the end of a long day. Or even if you've only been gone for half an hour. They don't care, they're just happy to see you!
• The cuddles
• The quiet times
• The loyalty they show and the complete trust dogs have in their humans
• Having your pet by your side
• When they tilt their heads, looking at you as if they understand what you're saying
• When they seem to be watching TV or any other human-type actions
• Watching their little bodies grow and their personalities develop
• Their curiosity and desire to explore the world around them
• The way they give and take comfort. They comfort us when we're sad and seek comfort when scared (like during a thunderstorm or when fireworks are lighting the sky)
• And the one that nearly melted my heart: they like the way a dog makes them feel needed and responsible for another living thing

I couldn't argue with a single one of these amazing qualities dogs bring to a relationship.

There is nothing like the uncomplicated love of a dog. Dogs don't care if you are rich or poor, young or old. They sense when you're sad, or scared, or sick. Some dogs are even able to provide invaluable services to humans.

I understand why our kids love their little four-legged family members. I hope they'll all have years of enjoyment out of each other's company.

We are at a season in life where we have more freedom to explore this big, beautiful world, so adding a dog to our household doesn't feel like the right move. But when we need a puppy fix, we don't have to go far. And, of course, we can "puppy sit" on an as-needed basis!

There's nothing quite like having a dog at your feet and in your heart, whether they live in your home on a full-time basis or they come for a visit and stay awhile.

As the saying goes:
​

​If you share your home with a puppy, young or old, show them a little extra love today. They've earned it. Kim