Turning Trash into Compost

Everyone's heard the old saying, "When life hands you lemons, turn it into lemonade!"

It's a really cute saying. And most people can handle lemons. Lemons are potholes on the way to work. Or running fifteen minutes late for a meeting. Catching a cold. Lemons are simple, day to day hiccups that are no big deal. They happen to everyone.

So sure, make some lemonade out of those lemons.

But life does more than hand out lemons. It seems to throw trash.

You know the feeling. Losing a job. Finding a lump. Getting a divorce. A loved one dying. These are not examples of life handing you lemons. These are examples of life throwing trash at you.

This trash usually flies at you at 90 mph at the least expected moment, just in time to knock you down. It's the general rule with life's trash. There's no time to duck. It hits, it hurts, and you go down. There's no avoiding it.

Once you recover from the hit, you don't have lemons to make lemonade. You brush yourself off to find a heap of trash sitting next to you. Not exactly a treasure.

That trash may seem worthless, but it will serve a purpose. In time, it will become fertile compost, and from the whole experience wisdom will sprout.

Some people have more compost than others. You know them by their vast garden of wisdom. These people dealt with life's trash and used the compost to build their garden. We should all follow their lead.