New Zealand

(Pre-Script: This post best read as the song, "Other Side of the World," #33 on the playlist, plays in the background. Go down to the playlist, click on that song, then come back and resume reading. I'll wait...)(...still waiting...)

We were driving on a steep winding road through thick redwood trees. The road was rain slick, but the trees looked beautiful. Everything was green and lush and you expected an Ewok to jump out of the trees and land on your lap; to close your eyes and open them again and discover that you really were in New Zealand.

From where I sat on the passenger's side, the road was broken at certain curves, and there was no fence, and I was very close to the edge. This kind of thing can make you wonder when you're going to drop off into the nothingness below, and will a tree catch your fall, and force freshly created oxygen back into your lungs, or will you tumble forever, not really experiencing the sensation of falling? The sign had warned us that it was going to be this bad, this risky, for the next 5 miles. But 5 miles when everything is so close and real can feel like 500, and when you are in the middle of the climb, you really have no choice but to continue.

You wonder how often beauty and danger ride hand in hand.

You wonder why you dared to risk it, but you do dare to risk it, every time.

And every time, you never actually know if you will make it to the end of the climb until you have actually made it to the end of the climb, or if you will instead crash over the side.

You are surprised to realize that you can't necessarily tell which would be worse.

You wonder how often the whole world seems to flip on it's head, so you could find that you are walking on an opposite continent in an opposite hemisphere and not even blink an eye at the realization.

-XOXO,