A Lemony Life
Sometimes life does give you lemons. How you receive them, and what you do with them once their sitting in a basket on your kitchen counter is much more important than the circumstances which landed them in your possession in the first place. I've gotten quite a few of these delightful citrus baskets myself and I have unfortunately bared witness to a few people getting their own baskets.
Here's what I've learned...Some people, prefer the sour taste of lemons, they'll gladly slice one in half and put it straight to their lips; which will inevitably cause their face to pucker. That is how they go through life, with a puckered face and a heart turned towards bitterness. Then there is the person, who takes those lemons, slices them into halves, and squeezes the sour juice out to make herself a tall glass of lemonade. She prefers the sweetness, and undoubtedly she'll share this yummy delicious concoction with a friend, spreading the sweet joy of life to another.
Still there is another type of person, who like the one before, will slice this lemon, but this lady will cut her lemon into quarters. Instead of squeezing out the sour juice, she'll go to her cupboard, pull out the sugar, pour some onto a plate, and dunk a piece of her bright yellow ("Holy kaw! WTF, and *insert string of explicatives here) into that crystallized plate of heaven. Next she'll got to her freezer and dig out a bottle of vodka that's kept there- buried beneath the chicken nuggets, and broccoli, just this sort of occasion. She'll gladly bite into the bitter fruit, accept it's taste, but be pleasantly surprised by the countering sweetness, and wash it down with a shot of her ice cold elixir. Sometimes she'll have a few friends to swing one back with her...Sometimes she'll be on her own. Either way, she faces the golden sour fruit, and discovers that through the bitter, can come the sweet, and sometimes you've got to swing back (or step back to steady yourself) to face what remains of the basket on your counter.
It's been raining lemons for someone very close to me lately. I'm proud to say, that her face will never freeze in a puckered state, and when it's all said and done, she's going to kick back, and share a round of sugary lemons with the people who really love her.
What do I take from this? What have I learned? It's as simple as gratitude.
I feel so blessed. I've got an amazing husband, two great, beautiful, wonderful boys, friends who love me, a mother who's strength and perseverance in times of hardship never ceases to amaze me, in-laws who I love like my parents, three siblings who I'd go to the moon and back for and they for me.
What else is there?
Not much.
When you place things into perspective and the bullshit gets sent down the toilet with all the other crap it's easy to see that life is good even when you've got a tall glass of ice cold lemonade sitting in your hand.
Love & Lemons,
nicóle