Following my amazing summer in Alaska, I returned to Austin and worked a while to replenish funds. While there, I met another fulltime RVer online and we seemed to have so much in common that he came to Austin to meet me. We spent about a month together and the attraction was fast and furious. But I had previous plans to spend a couple of months with my youngest daughter who had moved back to Maui, so I left for the islands in March. When I returned to Austin in May (after many phone & email marathons across the ocean), we married and took off together. Shortly, basic compatibility issues overcame passion and to make a long, sad story short (and to respect my ex's privacy) we separated after the ridiculously short span of 3 months.. At least no one can now say that RVing is the craziest thing I've ever done...

By August, I ended up back in Portland, Oregon, where I laid low for a while and worked to restore both my finances and my spirit. I was able to go back to work for Davis, Wright, Tremaine, where I had worked during my first visit to Oregon in 2002. It was a time when I was really thankful for familiar surroundings and "old" friends. By Christmas, I was ready to move on to Ashland and happier times.

I read recently in a magazine article: "Despite our wish that the center of our lives will hold firm, it never does. Life is like an ever shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter. One moment life feels full and perfect, and the next an accident happens or we fall sick. Settled comfortably into being single, we meet someone and fall deeply in love. We go along in one direction when an unforeseen obstacle appears and we have to swerve. Suddenly, stunningly, we are in a different life."

And a quote from a Tibetan Buddhist master: "We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart."

And so life begins once again...and the road goes on forever...and the journey never ends.