"Life is like a box of chocolates..."

Sometimes we all need to have a little bit of Forest Gump in ourselves to really see the beauty in things.

I spent the weekend down on 30A. Must say the weather was wonderful and the water was crystal clear. I invited my friends Ericka and Matt to come along for the weekend trip. Which if any of you know Matt, you know I was definitely in for a treat with him. He definitely keeps the laughs going. On the way down to the beach Friday night Matt started quoting scenes from the movie "Forest Gump". At which some point Ericka and myself joined in. I think we literally quoted over half of the movie. Then we jump on to the next subject.

Well little did we know that we would end up at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company on Saturday night. ( That place is Awesome!!!) If you have ever been you know about the trivia game they play while waiting for your meal to be served. Of course, we had a blast there. We even learned something about the movie that we didn't know. Ericka made the comment that she had not watched the movie from beginning to end. So where did we end up after dinner? You guessed it. Wal-Mart to buy the movie! Haha... So, Saturday night we watched Forest Gump from beginning to end. Matt and myself paid really close attention to the new things we learned about the movie. But through out the movie, someone in a scene would always say something that seemed so minor but yet so important.

Ya know, Forest wasn't as "stupid" as the kids and even the adults thought he was. His mama always said, "Stupid is as stupid does." Forest was just simple. Just from him being simple we could learn a lot from that in its self. I mean this day in time people just don't want simple. They do things the hard way or learn the hard way most of the time. I have been through enough hard times and found out things the hard way enough that I enjoy the simple things in life.

Forest never read to deep into anything! Today society does. You say one thing and well just hold on cause someone somewhere will take it totally different. We walk on eggshells so we won't hurt anyone's feeling but did Forest? Heck no! He just said it. Was he ugly? NO! He was just being honest. We are alot like Forest, we aren't trying to be ugly but the other person takes it that way. That follows with a quote from Forest, " Mama always said there's an awful lot you can tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going, where they been."  Yep this is totally true but how often do we really stop and look at a person's "shoes"?

Maybe not in a literal sense of actually looking at their shoes but even though that wouldn't hurt either. But look at their life shoes per say. My shoes are definitely different from yours and yours are different than the next person. But like Forest said, " I have worn lots of shoes." We all have! Sometimes it feels good to get rid of certain shoes though! Haha... You must admit that you are totally agreeing with me and you know exactly which pair too!! :) But we wore those shoes for a season in our life that was unavoidable! A season that we went through for a reason!! We should be thankful for every pair of shoes we have worn. I am because if it wasn't for all the different shoes I have worn, I wouldn't be where I am today! And I am right were I want and need to be.

Sorry guys, I know this is another long winded blog but I have so much to get out. So... back to the blog.

I remember when I was in some shoes I didn't want to be in and questioned God, " Why am I here in these shoes?" I also remember how I buried deep down and didn't want anyone to know that I was wearing those shoes. When in reality, people knew anyway. I was ashamed! I will admit it. Those shoes made me feel as though I was a complete failure. But that changed!

A new pair of shoes came along so to speak. I begin to realize in myself to be proud of where I had been and where I was going. I had been in those shoes for a reason. Now I realize, a really good reason! I learned more about life in those shoes than I have ever learned in my entire life. Now I have a chance to share it and hopefully help someone else.  I didn't see it then because well quite frankly I was to busy throwing a pity party. Lots of people are really good at that too. Just sayin! But the shoes I wear now fit perfect. I think these shoes show where I am going and where I have been.

I learned a lot while wearing certain shoes. As did Forest in some of his shoes. Forest has so much to offer us in this complicated world. Forest is simple. " Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get."

How true, how true Forest!

"Don't let anybody tell you they're better than you , Forest. If God intend everybody to be the same, He'd have given us all braces on our legs." Well Forest Gump's mama was right. But look at it like this... at some point we all have braces on our legs just differs from one to another.

I am not any better than you and I never will be. Life isn't a competition. Life is about being on the same team.

I will quit rambling about Forest and how he touched my heart this weekend. hehe.. I challenge you to watch the movie Forest Gump again. But to watch and learn from Forest, not laugh at him and his simple mind. A simple mind is a simple heart which is simple love.

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."