Book excerpt: Christine's Kilimanjaro: My Suburban Climb Up the Mountain of Life began with the author writing a thank-you letter to God. Christine found herself at a crossroads in her life when she stumbled across an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show one day. There she sat transfixed before the television, not expecting that her reality in an ordinary world would ever change. She never saw it coming—that this was the day her dreams would begin to change her life forever. “For the first time, I was going to be my own tour guide up my mountain. I could take a new path, instead of the tired one I had become accustomed to. I discovered something new—something that was no longer impossible—along the way, learning as I wrote that life is going to be messy, hurtful, confusing, even magical at times. But if I don’t stop to enjoy my view in the climb, when and if I finally make it to the top, the top will be nothing more than that. The ‘top’ of a mountain!” A beautifully written story about one woman’s quest to be the change she wishes to see in this world. A spiritual awakening took place as the author wrote out snapshots of her life, standing up to her past and a few demons she really never faced until she began to write her memoir. A moving and poignant path to self-discovery about her present and what she envisions her future to become. “Please stay seated, keep all hands and arms inside the moving vehicle at all times. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, people!” That is, unless when you are reading this book you want to stand up and shout WOO-HOO with me. Face it, some rules are meant to be broken!”