On this frosty new year’s day I was inspired to attend to our sheep wool from this past summers sheep shearing. It is amazing what insight can be found in the simple act of working with wool. While my younger son and I were sorting and prepping the wool for carding, I felt like I entered into an alternate reality.
We were out on the porch – as raw wool is mega messy – filled with bits of hay and dirt and poop galore. I emptied out a huge sack stuffed with the stuff and it looked so dirty I considered tossing out the whole bag. It was from our ram Reuben, and it was the dirtiest wool of the lot! I decided to see if there were any parts worth saving so with bare hands, enabling us to navigate the scissors safely, we proceeded to cut the poop parts out of the wool. All of a sudden, the epiphany came. Here was this disgustingly dirty pile of wool, and yet as we started to cut the poo and goo out I noticed that there was actually alot of beautifully creamy clean(ish) parts underneath. It was like, ‘sometimes you have to give some care and attention and look deeper at what first appeared so dirty and ugly to really see the potential and beauty of what’s in front of you. Be open, there is beauty everywhere’.
What a beautiful gift for the first day of 2023. Thanks, Creator.