Life Goals = A Lottery

Some life goals I set for myself over the years I have reached. Two came into strange juxtaposition this past week. One thing I had wanted to do since high school days was write a book that would actually be published by a publisher. That was realized in 1990 when HarperCollins bought a three chapter manuscript that Eloise Carlston and I had written in the summer of 1989. Mike was living in Colorado with his mother working at his new job there and Barrett and I were living in the big old house in Sandy, Utah waiting to sell it. PJ was also there in Salt Lake City, on his own at last.

Eloise and I hammered out my notes on the art class I had taught with her to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders at Quail Park, a little private school in Sandy. Eloise was the class teacher and I was the general factotum at the school. Through people we knew and through people we became acquainted with, we had the good luck to find a publisher quickly. The book, Experimenting With Art, was finally released in 1991 (with, oddly, a 1992 copyright on it). Not only did Eloise and I receive a check up front, but have received royalty checks twice a year since then. Until about three years ago when the checks started coming once a year and then last year there was none. This week I received another check. It was not a lot, but to have checks coming for close on twenty years has been such a nice touch in my life. I am a published author of some longevity.

I have other life goals. Some of them have been met. One was that I would become a teacher of embroidery of national reputation. I have been lucky in that. But one that has been elusive all these years has been that I would have a piece of my work on the cover of Needle Arts. I thought I had finally achieved that when I received my latest copy of Needle Arts last week. On the back of the plastic-wrapped magazine was a nearly full-page ad for my upcoming class, Intense Pattern, with a small picture of Earl Grey, my blackworked teapot. I smiled happily to myself when I saw it, thinking that at long last I had achieved my goal. But it was not to be. It was just the front cover of a little two-pager for educational opportunities for the coming year. Yes, I was a little disappointed.

I still have two life goals that are unfulfilled. One is the cover of Needle Arts and the other is to become a well-known artist in fiber. I am still working on both of them, but the artist thing is in hiatus just now while I work on classes. I am a one-thing-at-a-time type person. I can’t teach and write new classes and still be a working artist. One or the other. I plod along, but am happy with what I do, so I guess all is not lost. Oh, and I would like to win the lottery too. I am sure that 60 million bucks won’t spoil me.