A Box of Chocolates

"My mama always said 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'" Forrest Gump sums life up pretty well, you never know what's around that next corner, over that next hill, or just on the other side of your own front door, or maybe standing over your shoulder and breathing down your neck - it could be the loving hubby or the monsters from your dreams coming to take you back to fantasy land... I am the absolute proof that just when you think you have a plan someone else shows you a different plan. I have almost given up planning altogether because lately they don't seem to pan out anyway.


So back to Forrest and my box of chocolate... Unfortunately, I'm a pretty picky "chocolate" person. I love it, but only those certain few pieces of it really grab my attention/appetite. Dark chocolate for instance, and not just all dark chocolate, but the 65% cocao pieces... almost as much antioxidants per serving as a bowl full of blueberries! So, anyway, back to the "box," in my pickiness for the chocolate in my life, it seems that I have poked my nail into every piece in the box and I still can't "find" that plan that I had.

Plans that we set for ourselves, like "debt free in 5 years" yeah, that chocolate did not only miss getting put in my box but I think it grew feet and ran as far from me as the little milky legs could carry it. Or, how about the plan to have written a children's book... yeah, I found that chocolate and every time I try to take a bite out of it, I choke on it and set it back in the box for another day. Then there all the little plans, dreams, "to-dos" on my list of chocolates to try... it seems like I reach for that rasberry creme chocolate and come up with a vanilla nut carmel that is shocking when you bite into and get some unexpected, yet still yummy, flavor, but that new and exciting flavor totally takes you of course and again, your plan is left by the wayside.

You could say that I've been looking for that perfect dark chocolate, that is pure and good, and coats your tongue with bittersweet smoothness, and a hint of berries... but, i keep grabbing something with nuts that just adds to the craziness in my life, and crazy it is. Not as crazy as some, or maybe just as crazy, just a different type of crazy. Like my chocolates are filled with almonds and maybe yours are filled with pecans... and then there is the carmel, the carmel that sticks to your fingers and leaves a little trail of goo on your chin. The carmel that sticks to you and won't let go, it's so sweet and tantalizing, but soooo off course, but it's so sticky that you just can't let go and get back on track.

So yes, my life is like a box of chocolates. I'll keep looking for that dreamy piece of perfection, and I'll keep that plan to find it, but I know enough to not close my eyes and savor the expected flavor before actually biting into it, beacuse someone out there is looking down at me and waiting to see the shocked look on my face when I bite into yet another carmel nut concoction instead of the creamy raspberry that I wanted. And when I do give that shocked expression after biting into that "chocolate" that wasn't the one I had planned, His heavenly sense of humor will get a little enjoyment of seeing me realize that it's not my box of chocolates after all. It's a great big box of chocolates that He is holding open for me. He actually even has one of those neat little "maps" that shows you which piece of chocolate is the one you are looking for, my problem is with all my planning, I forget to read His map, and instead I try to poke around and find my own perfect flavor. One day I'll find that chocolate I've been looking for and realize it was right in front of me all along.