Yes, life IS a fast, crazy Merry-Go-Round.

But Merry-Go-Rounds take tickets.

So if you don’t want to ride the Merry-Go-Round, don’t buy a ticket.

What does that mean exactly?

Often, we think we have to ride the same horses as everyone else.

We think we have to DO and HAVE what everyone else is DOING and HAVING.

The big car.

The big house.

The large screen T.V.

The trip to the theme park.

The SAT prep class for the kids.

The violin lessons.

The annual vacation.

The 80 hour work week.

The stress.

The anxiety.

We CAN have all those things. Same as everybody else.

If we want them.

But we don’t HAVE to have them.

We can choose.

We can ELECT to step OFF the Merry-Go-Round.

While everyone else is still spinning ‘round and ‘round?

We can get some cotton candy.

We can go to the petting zoo.

We can slip our toes in the creek down by the woods and just stop for awhile and rest.

If we want to.  But we have to choose that.

No one’s going to give it to us.

And we will sacrifice some of the things that others have and we won’t get to do what some others do.

But if we step off, others will notice.

And from their wooden steed with its fixed grimace of artificial joy, people will look at us funny.

On each revolution, they’ll stare at us and wonder.

At first, it may seem like ridicule.  But mostly, it will be a look of jealousy.

So in the end, it’s up to us.

Besides. . .

It seems to me that, in the end. . .

Merry-Go-Rounds don’t Actually GO anywhere at all, do they. . .?  TZT