When Life Gives You Lemons

When people's lives are going well, they are quick to offer this piece of advice to an acquaintance or family member whose life has suddenly turned sour: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What does the expression "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," mean exactly?

Okay, so I had my leg amputated, think I will say, "Great, only need to put on one sock and shoe now. A pair of socks will last twice as long. But what do I do with the left foot shoe?" Um, some lemons are harder to deal with than others. Yet humans can be very inventive in turning life's lemons into something sweeter.

An example of this would be when the lake froze over. Did people sit around crying about that? Nope, they invented ice skates. When gliding across the ice on thin metal blades got boring they invented ice hockey and other games like Crack the Whip. Some people broke their legs or twisted ankles enjoying this lemonade. But, hey, better than the guy who fell through thin ice into the freezing water below. When rescued, he had to have his leg amputated.

Breaking a leg ice skating is not too bad. You get to stay home from school and watch soap operas all day. Friends come to visit bringing candy and flowers. They sign their names or draw pictures on the cast. When the doc removes the cast, you hang it on the wall as a constant reminder of your power. It was so much fun ringing the little bell so your brothers and sisters had to come running; your virtual slaves for six weeks. Later all you had to do was say "My leg hurts", do a fake limp and Father would carry you anywhere you wanted to go. True story. Mostly true. How a child turned her broken leg lemon into sweet lemonade.

When I was a child my grandmother gave me a tip to make squeezing lemon juice easier. She had me press on the lemon real hard with the palm of my hand rolling it back and forth on the table. As an adult I would never slice a lemon in half until I rolled it as Grandma instructed. Never questioned if doing so made squeezing the juice easier. I was a child and she had arthritis. Granny turned her lemon ~ lose of strength, painful hands and wrists ~ into lemonade by having a child do the lemon squeezing for her.

When life gives you lemons, you may have to roll that problem around in your mind as Grandma had me roll lemons. This will loosen up ideas and solutions will flow as easily as the juice from those lemons.