"Mark, is it really so complicated or do we just make it this way?"

"I think we probably make it complicated."

"What? By trying to figure it out? By trying to make it different?"

Mark shrugs his shoulders, looks me in the eye and says resignedly, "Just enjoy the ride!?"

Hum, that sounds very familiar....

The past seven months have been a wild, crazy ride which I wouldn't have missed for anything in the world!

Rides have always made my head spin and turned my stomach inside out. When I was young even riding in the back seat of the car made me sick but I've overcome that problem although, of course, I'd rather be in the front seat driving. But get on a roller coaster or ferris wheel? No way?

Years I've spent watching and wishing that I could get on one of those rides and sit at the top and look out over the town or the hills and feel like I was on top of the world. Years I've spent on the sidelines watching. Years......

Then I finally decided to get on this wild ride with no idea where it would take me but I knew that get on it I must. Some feelings are too strong to be denied.

I've had the highest highs of my life and some pretty devastating lows but they've been worth it. It is at the top that I started to see myself.

Oh, sometimes I've looked down and gotten dizzy.  It's so far to fall....head spinning....up, Sharon, up....don't look down!

Sometimes I've thought it was time to get off the ride. That the ups and downs weren't good for me. The downs, maybe not, but, man, those ups! I've become addicted to the "ups" and can't let go.

I know there'll come a time when the ride will be over and the person at the controls will tell me that I've used up my ticket but for now I'll take the advice of good friends and..

Just Enjoy The Ride!!!!

(I had a dream once that I was on a ferris wheel and it kept going round and round and I realized I was the only person on the ride and I looked down and the carnie was gone. No one was at the controls! And I kept going round and round and round and round and round.... And I heard voices crying out to me, "Wake up, Sharon! WAKE UP!")