“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately . . . .” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
As founders of Chasing Windmills, we struggle everyday to live deliberately. Unlike Thoreau, we did not journey into the woods and construct a log cabin.
For us, we had kids. On that day in November 2012, our lives changed forever — not just because we now had two tiny little human beings looking to us for nourishment and love, but because our newborn children inspired us to begin living deliberately.
We began asking questions that we had long neglected or taken for granted. Questions like: what do I need in my life to be happy? What inspires my heart, my mind, and my soul? What are the essential elements of my life? And, importantly as new parents, what do we want to bring into our children’s lives? What do we want to share with them? Who are we as parents?
In a word, we wanted to live deliberately — to truly think, for ourselves, what kind of life we wanted to lead and create as a family. This journey had led us to many different places, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, as we plotted the course of our lives.
Professionally, this journey led us to Chasing Windmills: our vision and our way of sharing the adventurous spirit of childhood through the natural goodness of merino wool. We felt inspired by a community of parents with a profound respect for and appreciation of what Mother Nature provides. We wanted to be part of this community, to throw our creative energy into a profound movement, and to share a piece of ourselves in the process.
Merino wool — a super soft, natural, renewable fiber — is the means through which we connect with other mamas and papas who wish to live deliberately. Through Chasing Windmills, we are a small part of their much grander journeys, and for that we are forever grateful.
In our quest to live deliberately, we make choices each and everyday about how we live and what we consume. In little ways, we seek to remain true to ourselves and to our children. We bring re-usable bags to the grocery store; we compost through the City of Denver’s new composting program; we purchase offsets to neutralize the carbon impact of shipping worldwide; and we carefully consider what and how we consume everything from goods to clothing, preferring those created with natural materials.
As an apparel brand, we recognize our responsibility in bringing, we hope, something of value and significance to the market. Never wanting to “sell” to someone, we strive to connect with parents who see wholesome goodness in what we make.
As a culture, we are beginning to move away from disposable plastic water bottles (as more and more people carry their reusable water bottles) and away from plastic grocery bags (to paper and bring-your-own reusable bags). There is a shift away from plastic and to the natural.
Chasing Windmills is part of this journey too, away from plastic-based synthetic clothing fibers and to natural renewable fibers like merino wool. Every year, 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans. With nothing on Earth evolved to biodegrade plastic, it just floats there — year after year after year.
Much of this floating plastic comes from washing synthetic clothing. Microfibers wash away and make their way into waterways.
Merino wool, on the other hand, is naturally biodegradable. It returns to organic matter, returns to the Earth.
It’s one way that we live deliberately, conscious of our impact upon our planet.
In our quest to live deliberately — whether as parents, co-founders of a company, and all the other hats we wear — we will struggle at times. But it is that struggle, that process of discovering who we are and what we wish to share with this world, that gives us the sense that we are not alone.
We are with you.