Dear Reader:

Life is funny how it never turns out as expected… it turns out better!

If you have a few moments today to reflect on your life’s ” good, bad, and ugly” please do so… because it is only when we take the time to see all the curves in our life’s road… in hindsight… that the epiphany finally hits… we ended up right where we belong.

I have told you several times… how horrified I was when mother informed me, at the end of my sophomore year at Erskine… that I would (” no and’s , if’s, or but’s”) get a teaching degree so I would have ” gainful” employment. A teacher! Help!

And I did get that help when it dawned on me those first few months in the classroom… that I might not see myself as a teacher… but I was a storyteller and with a little creativity… they could be one and the same… and a big plus… I had a ” captive” audience!

Youth is amazing in how adaptable they can be… I taught my first school year in the first year Summerville schools integrated and it never occurred to me that would be a problem… everyone in the class was simply one of ” my” students and at a young age ( 21) my eyes were opened to the strength of diversity that never left me.

Years later the biggest obstacle in my life appeared when my marriage went under and I found myself struggling to keep a sense of normalcy and not become a single parent statistic with unruly children.

But I was not alone… there was no greater role model than my own mother and the amazing Dingles kept the sense of normalcy and family alive and secure! No children ever had better grandparents, aunts, and uncles! Such lucky children! Such lucky me!

My educational career soared and I was able to travel the country and world through leadership opportunities I never could have envisioned… making friends nationally and internationally! Life just got better and better… that happens when we let God hold the reins on our own historic life’s tour.

And even when a potentially life-altering cancer diagnosis loomed after Mandy’s wedding… God dropped the reins and instead put on his stethoscope and has walked by me throughout this sometimes slippery slope… the Great Physician! Always holding my hand!

So until tomorrow…Remember… when working on your own life puzzle… you don’t have to start at the corners.. you can jump right in the center if you like!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Here are some more scenes from Forrest Gump… the ones filmed in Beaufort-five months of filming…

Forrest and Jenny’s homes were built and then taken down after the movie-filmed at Bluff Plantation… southeast of Twickenham near Yemassee.

The beautiful shrimp boat scenes were shot along Lucy’s Creek on Lady’s Island.

Later when Forrest was running across the United States crossing the ” Mississippi” state line… it was actually the Woods Memorial Bridge located in downtown Beaufort… the Mississippi State sign was kept on the bridge for awhile after filming until complaints came in saying the sign was misleading and confusing ( party poopers!)