For Every Up . . .

There Must Be a Down.

This is my journey.  No way around it.  No sense complaining about it.  Just keep working to make the up a little better, a little longer.  Keep working to make the down a little less like the vertical drop on the first hill of a massive roller coaster.

I do not like roller coasters.  I tried to like them but I really don't.  I didn't ride my first roller coaster until I was in high school.  I was so terrified I couldn't scream.  I sat, eyes clenched tight, mouth sealed shut.  I tried, for a few years, to like roller coasters.  All my friends loved them.  But not me.

I don't like the tumultuous nature of a roller coaster - climbing up, plummeting down; rocketing left, then right; flying upside down.  I like fairly even ground.  Rises and falls, but in a gentle undulating manner.

Cricket is my roller coaster.  The journey we are on is one of steep climbs, unpredictable turns and, often, steep drops.  Like the flat track before the sudden, invisible drop, I can have a ride on Cricket that causes me to feel we are finally over the "really steep climb."  And then the world falls away and the car plummets down the track.

But always, on every coaster, there's a final spot where everything levels out and you step out of the car, a little shaken but none-the-worse-for-wear.

I'm searching for that place with Cricket.  One day, I just might find it.