Making lemonade

Surprisingly, citrus fruits grow around here.  The first month we moved here, on Freecycle.org I found several people giving away as many lemons as a person wanted.  We picked a bag of them.  Honestly, we haven't been back.  Fresh lemons smell wonderful.  However, in general, we do not drink much of any juice around here so to have lemonade everyday for a couple of weeks, seems excessive.  I do know that many juice the lemons then freeze in ice cube trays to use later.

Looks refreshing doesn't it?  There is the appeal on a hot summer day, for a cold glass of lemonade.  The best lemonade I have ever had was at a carnival.  Lemons floating in it, sweet, a touch of tangy, refreshing lemonade.  Otherwise, I don't care for lemonade, which is why I can't imagine having even fresh lemonade for days on end.

Lemonade is very simple to make; lemons, sugar, water.  That's really it.  How often have you heard the phrase, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade"?  Too many to count.  And despite not enjoying lemonade, I do try to make "lemonade" out of whatever life hands me.

Recently, the "lemonade" has been very sour.  While accepting of the lemons, I did not want to squeeze the good out.  I really wanted to take those sour lemons and practice my pitching.  It is spring training season and I know I have a terrible pitching arm.  I wanted to pitch them against a wall and watch them bust open and splatter.  It seemed much more appropriate to how I was/am feeling.

I often get asked, "How are you doing?"  My standard reply when things are challenging, "I'm fine." I have a choice, to quote Karen Kelly, "I can either give up or look up".  I could rant and rave about how unfair life is or I can look at my blessings and be grateful for all that I have. I could choose to hand out my sour lemons to all that I meet or hand them a glass of lemonade (sweetened of course).  No matter what is going on, life continues to move forward, and so must we.  Through the years, I have found that sometimes the best way to manage situations is to have friends, real friends who understand that sometimes to just be available to grab a glass of lemonade.  Those friends can be hard to find, but I cherish the ones I have found. For it is the sweetness of friends that make lemonade sweet and refreshing.