What happens when you wake up and realize that you are almost 61, that you don’t have half the zip or drive that you had even a year ago, that managing health issues consume many hours of your day, and what you do for a living is just getting to be too much?  Well, if you are like me, you seek answers.  You ponder on all of this, hoping a path opens.

This isn’t my first foray in to seeking a different path … I’ve been looking for my path for a long, long time.   Several years ago, while I was doing a walking meditation, trying to key in to that Universal voice of wisdom that seems to speak easily to some, I asked the question that seems to be a mantra for me “What do You want me to do?  Please, show me the trail and I will follow it.”  In place of the crickets I normally hear, one word emerged, loud and clear it came in to my head.  “WRITE.”  So I try and I am eternally gratefully to all of you that take the time to read my words.

Three years ago, walking the same field, with the same frustration and the same question, another single word in a clear strong voice came through.  “DOG COATS”  “Really?,” I screamed to the heavens, “WRITE and DOG COATS are Your words of wisdom? This is what You send me to work with?”

I’m a decent seamstress, even though I lack confidence.  But taking this Universe message at face value, I committed to making dog coats.  I have worked on a measuring system, I made some prototypes as time allowed.  I engaged my dogs in modeling.  I asked a few friends to test my measurement system and let me design coats for them for free.  The silence from this request was deafening.

This weekend, huddled in my cold house, avoiding the very cold outside, I pulled those coats out, along with some collars and leashes I have been testing the last year or so.

So where do I go from here?  I get the biggest kick out of creating these coats.  My dogs patiently tolerate my measuring and fitting.  They humor me through photos.  But how do you go from playing with prototypes on your own dogs to producing products for dogs that you may not get to meet in person?  Arghhh … any thoughts out there in blogland?  Anybody interested in a free dog coat in return for working with me to design long distance?

As all of us in the mid-west and east shiver, tucked up in our houses … maybe turning to pondering on our lives,  I hope you find your path and your dreams.  I hope that your dogs will always be warm and safe in the winter.  And if you decide you want to test my concepts for a custom made coat, the Alexander’s Ark team is going to do our best to follow our path!