It’s high time I did a check in on my 2007 goals. Being goal driven, I get a lot of pleasure out of establishing, working towards, and eventually reaching my goals (or just scrapping them entirely and starting from scratch!), so indulge me here while I recap. If you’ve been a reader for awhile, this will be a little trip down memory lane for you, and if you are a newer reader, this may serve as a good introduction (welcome!)

This has been a very interesting year so far (and a very good one!), but things are taking a bit of a different direction than I thought they might at the beginning of the year. Things happen for a reason, so I’m going with the flow and making adjustments!

With that in mind - let’s take a look at where I’m at and see if I need to do any revamping!

**Ok folks, this little “Goals Check In” turned into one mammoth write up, much more for my own documentation and edification than you probably care to read, and since I can’t figure out how to do that lovely little “read more” tag to spare those of you who may not want to read through such long-winded ramblings, I’ve bumped this over to my “Purling Plans” tab - check it out there at your own risk!**

“…If we allow ourselves contemplative time in nature - whether it’s gardening, going for a walk with the dog, or being in the heart of the southern Utah wilderness - then we can hear the voice of our conscience. If we listen to that voice, it asks us to be conscious. And if we become conscious, we choose to live lives of consequence.”

- Terry Tempest Williams

I believe that almost everything happens for a reason. I’m not at all religious, but I absolutely do believe that life sometimes steps in and lends a hand, either affirming something that I already know, or revealing something that I hadn’t yet considered. Whether that equates to my subconscious at work or some great karmic plan, I may never know. But I do know that things have a way of working out the way that they’re “supposed” to, and if a thing is meant to be, well then, be it the universe or karma or maybe just general good vibes, it’s seems to work toward that end. Does that mean that everything works out the way that I want it to? Of course not. It just means that sometimes I assign meaning to seemingly random events, those which seem too coincidental to be meaningless - both those happy and positive events, and those “learning experiences” that we all have along the way. And that when I’m paying attention, these seemingly random events help me to work things out in my head, take comfort or draw conclusions, and sometimes after enough time and thought, make decisions and changes. An entirely unexpected situation sometimes presents itself, and though it might not be exactly what I was looking or hoping for, there might be a very good reason for it and it might be just the thing that I needed.

In the last few weeks there have been a quite a handful of these little thought-provoking events. And being that Tad and I have been in a period of re-evaluation over the last, well really over the last few years, I feel encouraged in this area. Our values and priorities have changed a great deal and continue to evolve as we educate ourselves about our impact on the world around us and make choices to influence and hopefully to lessen that impact. Just recently there have been many discussions with friends and with Tad about the direction that we’re headed. There was a particularly fortuitious meeting, which also turned into correspondences about the future and options regarding land and farming. There have been articles and blog entries which have spurred the thought process. And I found this write-up in my email box - which wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t subscribe to the email you know, but still (I do hope that they find an appropriate solution). It does seem that a lot of occurences are affirming the direction that we’re headed and the steps that we are taking to that end. In any case, we are paying attention, and thinking. And taking comfort, and talking and formulating plans. Change is inevitable. Not necessarily fast-moving change, unless one of those fall out of the sky things were to happen. Certainly though - change in perspective, change in focus, and incrementally and over time, change in lifestyle. It starts here, with the two of us, our priorities, our commitment, and our attitudes.

My compass…. I got this at a time of big change in our lives (Tad’s & mine); It represents different things to me (click to go to the notes), but among others it’s a reminder of what’s truly important in my life. And because of the time when it was drawn, the time that it was inked and all that has transpired since, it reminds me that re-evaluation is a good thing. We are not the same people that we once were, or that we will be 10 years from now. It’s all about having the courage to make changes on a both a large and small scale to build a meaningful life.

I know, I know, SAFF is months away, but I’m still running off my MDSW high, so I’m thinking a lot about SAFF! It doesn’t hurt that I had a very nice email conversation with Elizabeth - who recommended SAFF and also sent me to JenLa’s SAFF webpage, and then Jen was so nice too. She’s got some great information about the festival on her page and links to bloggers who are planning to go so we can get to know each other a bit before hand. Tad got extremely excited when he thought that Jen had a farm podcast (yes, Tad reads some of these blogs too - I tend to pass along some of them, especially the farming related ones because I know how much he’ll enjoy them), unfortunately, it was a list of links to other Podcasts on Jen’s site that he saw. Jen, note that you would have one (make that two!) very interested listeners if you did start a podcast Anyway, now I’m practically jumping up & down about an event that’s feels like it’s forever away! Well, if it’s anywhere near as great as MDSW was, it will be worth the jumping up & down. Come on along! It’s going to be a great time!! (and if you plan to go - jump on over to Jen’s page and shoot her an email!)

As a follow up to all the shearings taking place this spring with the Guild farmers, our Thursday night event was a fleece sale! Woo-hoooo! One of my goals for the year is to take a fleece from shorn fiber to finished knitted product. This is why you don’t see any pics of an actual fleece from MDSW, although there were many there to be had. I was holding out for one from our local guild - it just seems especially nice to know the farmer and also possibly the animal that the fleece came from as well. With Tad’s and my interest in alpacas, I very much wanted to get some fleece from Cathy at Kipling Pines Alpacas to gain some experience working with the fiber. I also couldn’t resist a pound of Kelly’s shetland, Colleen, who had beautifully soft and lovely champagne colored fleece. These women are incredible to me. Several of them have “real” jobs in addition to their farms, I don’t know how they do it. They are a great source of friday afternoon daydreams, and one of the (many) reasons I love our guild. A couple other reasons might have something to do with the unexpected (and unnecessary, though much appreciated!) generousity and general fun-ness of the other members. Namely Kathi, who sent me home with a bit of her own fawn colored alpaca “just to try - I’ve got tons!” and Kathryn’s brownies which she unloaded on me as she left (and I can’t stop eating them. My first mistake was sharing with Tad as instructed. He’s going to have to fight me for the rest. I will win.) I could go on & on - am I making you sick yet? Suffice it to say that they all pretty much rock.

Now I just need to figure out to do with these amazing fleeces! I did take Nancy’s Spinning 201, but this will really be my first go at it! Anyone have cards or combs they wouldn’t mind lending? Maybe I’ll do some washing this weekend - scratch that - NEXT weekend, I have some serious knitting to do this weekend! Update to follow.

Edited - Pictures of the lovely girls that these fleeces came from - These are courtesy of Kelly and Cathy, the owners: