Paying it Forward

If you have never seen the movie "Pay it Forward" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/ I highly recommend you do...soon!  Just arm yourself with a shoulder to cry on and a big box of tissue, it is heartwarming as well as heartbreaking.  Typically paying it forward means when a good deed has been done for you to repay that deed to another...even if that person is a stranger.  A good example that I love is when the person in front of you in the Starbucks line pays for your order...that has happened to me twice and made my day!  Of course then you are supposed to "pay it forward" to the person behind you and really hope that it isn't a carpool full of coffee addicts! And so on and so on...
Today I experienced an awesome example of someone "paying it forward" a Facebook "friend" and member of the Bombshell Dynasty Beachbody Club I'm in, posted a very moving blog and it really hit home on so many different levels.  She had come across a post from a friend of hers, completely random but it touched her.  That quote was "it's never too late to become what you might have been."  Wow, so true.  This past year I have grown so much.  It only took me 37 years but I am finally really content and sure of where I'm going, and so excited about what is to come.  And every time I turn around something or someone is brought into my life to further solidify my certainty.  I have always had friends, but many of those friends have come and gone with time and life's twists and turns.  The few friends that I hold dear to my heart have been around for as long as I can remember and they know who they are...they are the ones who know every dark secret of mine and every dream I dream.  They "get" me (stolen from a new friend).  Then there are the people in my life that I call family, even if they are not.  Without them, I don't know where I would be.  And now, at this exact time in my life there are new people and new friends that I have made over the last year or so...these people have came into my life for all kinds of reason, some through our children, others out of completely crazy situations and still others that just simply were always there but it just wasn't the "right" time. I know that those friends are the ones that are a part of what I am becoming.  I remember my parents saying that you are only as good as the company you keep, or something like that.  Well, I'm keeping good company these days and I'm not so worried about the others that always brought me down or poisoned me with their bitterness or negativity. I am so thankful for where I am, and where I'm going.  I know that God has great plans for me and my family.  I am certain that all of our trials and tribulations have not been for no real reason.  So I sit here, writing this and getting stopped every five seconds by one of my children, and I am reflecting.  I am reflecting on what I want in life, what I want to be for myself  and family and friends, and that quote, that simple statement of "it's never too late to become what you might have been" is stuck in my head.  Really, if you read deeper than the words, what you will see is that if you are unhappy, if you are lost, if you feel like you have no one to turn to and nothing to be grateful for...it's not too late...it's never too late.  There is a plan for you too, and you CAN still be what you were meant to be, you just have to have friends and faith to push you forward...test the limits, better yet, test yourself...quit saying "I can't" and start saying "I can" and you will...I promise you that it works, I'm proof of it!  So, thank you Markie, even though we have never spoken or met, except through Facebook, you touched me today...right at a moment that I needed it!  This is me "paying it forward"...I hope this hits home for someone else too.