I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to the next right thing.

You're listening to episode 261.

This is a podcast about making decisions but also about making a life.

If you struggle with decision fatigue, chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few minutes,

away from the constant stream of information, and the sometimes delightful but also distracting

hum of entertainment, you're in the right place for discerning your next right thing.

As I'll share tips or interviews here, other times I'll tell a story.

Today's a story day, and I hope you'll find something in it to inform your next right thing.

Listen in.

I got the text in September.

I was in Goshen, Indiana, with my dear friend, Shannon Merton, for our annual writing retreat.

That started back in 2014, when I was writing my fourth book, Simply Tuesday.

I needed to go back to my own hometown routes in southern Indiana, to soak around my history,

to find some words that lived there that couldn't be found anywhere else.

But Shannon lived in Indiana, so we figured it would be a fun time to meet up and we did.

We each got our own hotel room, because if we shared one, we would likely never get any

work done.

But after hours of writing alone, we would join up over some nachos, chat it up about

all the things, walk around long enough to feel city-like, and then we'd go back to our

rooms, write for hours again, until it was time to eat again.

We liked that rhythm so much in 2014 that we did it again in 2015.

This time she came down my way.

...