COLLINS: Is life really like a box of chocolates?

NORMALLY ON A DAY LIKE TODAY, the last Sunday before Christmas, I would be relaxing in my chair, maybe in front of a fire, counting the good things that happened over the year, saying a prayer for those less fortunate, and then sitting down to a scrumptious dinner.

But the past couple of years, the quote from Forrest Gump has made me realize just how topsy-turvy life can be. “Life is like a box of chocolates.” You put your hand in and you pull one out.  But every time you pull out a chocolate, you have no idea what it will taste like, and if you compare it to a stream in your life, no idea where it will lead. You made the draw, now it’s up to you to make the most of it.

And that requires a lot of determination. I did not expect to be spending this year as my second straight year in a hospital bed unable to walk, nor to watch one of my closest friends pass away suddenly from a rapidly onset cancer. Or to find myself facing two simple procedures which turned into life-and-death experiences.

We had many blessings, too. And sometimes they get forgotten.