Forrest Gump

  Forrest Gump liked to say that “Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what’s you’re going to get.”  Well, he learned that from his mother, of course.  And what we learn from our mothers are usually things that we’ll need later in life.  

  One thing I learned from my mother was to never give up on your kids.  God knows she had plenty of good reasons to give up on me with all the crazy, ignorant, selfish and sometimes stupid things that did when I was young.  But even though I know I hurt her plenty of times while I was growing up, she never wavered in her silent love for me. 

  Thinking back on that makes me realize what a valuable gift that was.  Valuable because it gave me a safe and caring place where I could gradually begin to sort out the pieces of my young life, sufficiently enough to get myself launched into early adulthood without too much trauma or permanent damage to my psyche or my soul.  …So thanks, mom, for that special gift of unconditional love.

  But let’s look now at our friend Forrest Gump and his mom’s philosophy; “Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what’s you’re gunna to get.”  Well, that’s true , in the sense that life definitely does have a lot of surprises for us, and every tomorrow always has some unknowns in it.  But in the deeper context of what life is going to bring, I’ve found that you CAN know what you’re going to get.  And you know what that is?  You’re always going to get exactly what you create!

  Let me give you a concrete example.  Have you ever woken up and for no known reason felt just on top of the world; and then gone out into your world and had an absolutely fabulously enjoyable and successful day?  Well, I did that yesterday, and the joyous and successful feelings that I experienced during all my activities and interactions with others yesterday were none other than the energetic responses to the state of consciousness that I began my day with when I woke up. 

   And we’ve all seen how this plays out in the opposite direction when someone drags their misery with them into their new day.  They make everyone else at the office or school, or wherever they go, miserable too, with all their unhappiness.  Now I understand that we can’t all be warm and fuzzy every minute of every day, and that every one of us has real pain and losses from time to time in our challenging lives. 

  But we should remember that the intelligent laws and energies of the universe are always working for us, but if we don’t pay attention to them they’ll continue to work with us anyway, often expressing negatively in our lives when we’re not making wisdom guided choices.  So in my thought for you today I’ve been focusing on that one law that tells us that “What we sow is what we reap.”  And of course we’ve all heard that one since forever.  But what’s needed in most people’s lives is a fuller and more conscious integration of this universal law, starting with the understanding that our lives are built directly from the blueprints of our thoughts. 

  Unfortunately though, we treat some of these core truths in our lives like old pictures hanging on the wall.  We get to the point where we don’t see them anymore. 

  So here’s both my challenge and my remedy for you………...  Make strong intentions of how you want your activities and your relationships to go today, and every day, and then visualize yourself confidently and powerfully carrying out your life improving intentions.  If you’ll do this consistently each morning when you get up and each evening before you go to bed you’ll be building the strong foundation you need for the beautiful new life you desire and of which you are the chief architect!

I’m John Johnston   See you next time, here, On the Cosmic Porch!