Goals -

I have goals, I do. But I don't have a 5 year plan, a 10 year plan - I don't have "what I want to be when I turn . . . " plan. Nope, refuse to. Life doesn't happen that way - at least not mine! I have never had a moment in my life when I've been able to map out where I would be and what I would be doing a year, 5 years, 10 years from now.

When my little family moved to Alabama 22 years ago, for a 2.5 year stint, one of the executives from McDonnell-Douglas was in our home. He asked us, "So, what do you plan on doing in 10 years?" I remember this question because I thought it was so ludicrous. Goodness - do we really know what we'll be doing 10 years from now? Interestingly - it was only 6 months later that Clark lost his job, and we left Alabama and headed back to Utah. Who woulda thunk?

Well - I'll take the first paragraph back - there have been some goals, plans. One was for Clark and I to visit Washington DC, where he served his LDS mission. We did, it was beautiful, I fell in love with the area. We came home, bought a picture of autumn in the south, hung it on our wall, and said, "If we ever get a chance to move 'here', let's go." Then we did work toward that - and an opportunity did come, and we did move, and our lives were forever changed.

Another - I was determined to get a college degree. I wasn't sure what my area of emphasis would be, when I began, and I certainly had no idea how long this would take, but I did it - I worked my goal - while the world around me spun, sometimes out of control.

I had other goals, including being able to do research in a small community, fall in love with the community - learn the people. And I did, shortly after graduating from USU with my MA, I went to the Eastern Shores of the Chesapeake Bay, and did research for 3 weeks - too short, but life-changing.
However - I've rolled with my life - never being so rigid with my goals, if something better came along I'd skip it! Having goals is also about being flexible. Flexible enough to sincerely determine if your goal is worth the loss an adventure may bring in its place. For instance, if my goal was to live in Brigham City all my life, and yet the opportunity to move to Alabama came along - would I turn AL down because of my BC goal?
Having goals has given me the freedom to break them as well. If I don't know where I'm going, how can I say yes or no to what lies ahead?

As I'm looking at pictures from the past 10 years, I'm certain I had no idea that my life would be where it is right now. I'm certain I would not have put my life situation as one of my goals. I'm going to mourn the losses, what I've given up when I've chosen something else (and I may mourn the fact that my children went places, did things that were their parents' agendas, not theirs, thus being pulled hither and yon), but I'm a look forward kind of person.

LDS President Thomas S. Monson said, "Learn from the past, prepare for the future, live for today." Sometimes I think we're so busy living in the past and preparing for tomorrow that we don't enjoy the present. So yes - I have goals, I have a planner filled to the rim with things to do, happenings. If I must have a 5 year, 10 year plan it's this - live my life with no regrets, enjoy the journey, seek adventure, love whole-heartedly. There -