Life really is like a box of chocolates...

I never really understood the hoopla about the movie Forrest Gump. It seemed like a Tom Hanks rehash of Peter Sellers in Being There to me. But that "Life is like a box of chocolates" phrase has some traction. God always has something in the box to surprise you.

I just graduated last Friday from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg with my Masters of Divinity degree. I guess the reason I'm blogging right now is because I feel like I should be writing a paper or something ... I'm sure I'll get over that. The graduation was great, the best part of it was having my husband, children, parents and two of my close dear clergy friends there. When I opened up the program, though, I saw my name listed under Senior Honors for New Testament studies. That totally caught me off guard! It certainly was a surprise to learn that our faculty nominated me for this honor ... quite humbling in fact! Guess I'll have to keep up with the Greek now to walk the talk!

Yesterday, my husband and I spent the day at the America's Cup polo match in Leesburg VA. Now I grew up in California and the areas I lived in weren't known for horses or horse events, so this isn't part of my history. But, beloved husband's company cosponsored the America's Cup, so off we went to the polo match. We had a good time and I had the chance to not only see beloved's boss, who is from England and helped me understand all this polo stuff, but also got to meet the boss's "mum" who was over for a visit. Turns out, boss is from Canterbury - the closest thing we Anglican's have to Rome. Mum insisted that we visit her in Canterbury and we told her we wanted to go there. She quite "matter-of-factly" told my husband, "Splendid! And when you come I'll introduce you to the Archbishop." HUH?! Seems she works with the Archbishop of Canterbury and, if he's in town, she'd like to introduce us. Stay tuned ... could be a Forrest Gump moment ...

And now it's Mother's Day and I spent the morning worshiping with the mission congregation I've been appointed to serve. It was good, they are a very caring group, and I'm so blessed to be going there. God is good ... all the time. We're off to go visit my mom and dad in a few minutes, not only to celebrate Mother's Day, but also to celebrate Dad's 70th birthday. Carpe diem.