canned pickles...and other inspiring projects

This time last year, I had 42 quarts of freshly canned pickles in my root cellar. It wasn't that I had an over-abundance of cucumbers in the garden or that our family eats pickles everyday. It was because, when I get an idea to do something, I generally go all out. Similar to the time I decided I would 'become' a potter. I took two classes and by the end of the week, I had a wheel and a kiln, along with 200 pounds of clay and 14 glazes to get us through the winter. I have a knitting basket in my living room corner with 14 balls of (relatively) new yarn for the socks and matching sweater I am going to knit. I have a pantry with a 50 pound box of vital wheat gluten to go with my "Healthy bread in five minutes a day' book (plus two five gallon buckets of wheatberries to grind into fresh flour). I have countless herbs drying to use in potions for salves and oils, some I am not quite sure what I will use them for. I have an unopened stainless steel meat grinder to grind the venison that I have when I learn to hunt with my never-been-shot rifle I bought at last year's auction. I have a ceramic crock to make 5 gallons of sauerkraut at a time. At a time.

So why? Why, you ask...am I any more ambitious than you? Am I a complete over-acheiver? Am I flighty, easily distracted? Do I dabble in having borderline attention focusing issues? The answer to anyone that knows me, is a 'eh...nope (actually a snort, a giggle and then a 'eh...nope').

The answer lies more in how I choose to experience this beautiful life of mine. I don't sit on the sidelines wondering what life would be like if I tried this or that. I don't fall asleep imagining if I should go here or there. I don't daydream about the possibilities...I experience them...fully. Sometimes I find it is not for me and sometimes I find that I enjoy it more than I expected. Sometimes I realize it was a big mistake and other times it ended up being a perfect fit. But most times, it fell somewhere right in the middle. These are the times that I go into the root cellar, grab a quart of pickles and contemplate my next move....and since I only have 16 quarts left, I think I am doing just fine.