I'm going to guess you've probably seen or heard about a little movie starring Tom Hanks that came out some years back called Forrest Gump. Sally Field, in the role of Forrest's mother, delivers the film's most memorable line: "Life's a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you're gonna get."
That deceptively simple and folksy truism - delivered in Mrs. Gump's soft Southern drawl - is a somewhat sunnier variation on John Lennon's "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." (Sadly all too prophetic in John's case.)
All of us, in some way, have experienced unexpected and difficult events in our lives. It's part of life. But as humans, we remain ever-optimistic that our lives will somehow unfold untouched by the seemingly random tragic upheaval that befalls others. We promise to love and cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse... and we do, but we're often unprepared for what life throws at us. We learn quickly though and we mostly push through it somehow. And when we look back, we realize how we've changed and that what we've experienced sometimes has a silver lining. It's part of life.
When my husband died, we had just bought our first house - our little dream house. But it was only the promise of a dream and it wasn't mine alone, it was ours, so I sold it without ever living in it. But I still wanted a little house, a garden, a dog in the yard, a clothesline, a patio where friends could gather over a meal or a drink. And so, a year later, I bought my little chocolate box house.
Like any older house, it's a work in progress (a lot more work than I was led to believe when I bought it!) and I've got lots of projects in mind and on paper. Some have already been checked off the proverbial and never-ending list. I'll write about my reno projects and share some photos as well as my decor shopping finds (often second-hand, occasionally custom order, and everything in-between).
And so my life - like my little chocolate box house - has been, and continues to be, full of surprises. Some, like Chris' death and my flooded basement, were awful and stressful events that I wouldn't wish on anyone. But I got through them and learned from them and discovered that I'm more resilient than I realized. Other surprises, important ones like meeting Chris and seemingly trivial ones like finding a perfect Russel Wright cream jug for $2 in a dusty junk shop, were delightful and still make me smile.
I don't know what my life with me is going to be like. It's good to have some sort of plan, some goals. But sometimes, it's good to just wing it 'cause you never know what you're going to get. And that can be a good thing...
P.S. I prefer fruit creams rather than nuts if you're in a chocolate-giving mood...
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