“When life gives you lemons, do you make lemonade or make a lemon feast?”
Sometimes life gifts us lemons, [reality bites], and we often anxiously hustle to make lemonade, but this is not always the most effective use of our resources or beneficial to nourishing our souls. In this era of quick fixes, a delicious beverage may make things taste good in the short term but lessons in my life have proven that not all lemons make great lemonade, nor should we think lemonade is the answer or the only use for a lemon!
The hustle of the short-term fix when life's lemons are thrown at us, is to make lemonade, it is undeniably good to do so, however, the rewards received from creating a long-term fix [a real feast] is often overlooked as a solution because it requires alot of extra ingredients-namely delicate timing, effort, and patience. We all know how delicious and quenching lemonade can be, but how sublime is the lingering palette pleasure of a feast...Chicken Meunière followed by a French Tarte au Citron with lemon custard. Both options are sustaining, however when life gifts you lemons the key is knowing if you need to quench your thirst or if you need to be fed!
Sometimes, when trials arrive we get busy trying to make the lemonade, doing the same thing repetitively can be both exhausting and underwhelming. The truth is, sometimes we need to pause and instead of making lemonade we may need to rethink and menu plan- prepare and gather extra ingredients to make something utterly delicious out of the lemons we've been gifted. This may mean pondering or researching how to use the lemons. This may look like purchasing and adding the extra ingredients, learning new skills to reimagine or innovate, and sometimes we may simply need to remove the rind, preserve it and savour it at a later time. The end game of making something out of the lemons is clarity and change, a great formular for growth and progress.
I think you get the point. Not all of life’s lemons are bitter long term. If we are still long enough, we can see the change or clarity they provide for us personally. The choices on managing what we do when life’s gifts us lemons are endless. Failures and messes, hurt and disappointment, unfulfilled expectations and forseen challenges are bitter and can be life altering. However, if we slow down sufficiently, pause to rest and reset, we will see that the lemons are the foundational or key ingredient to making something truly delicious and desirable that will be nourishing. It’s referred to as the law of opposition. Bittersweet, sweet and sour, can exist simultaneously to make something harmonious. I’m sure we have each sampled enough fruits to understand that a combination of bitter and sweet can be exquisitely magic.
The lemon to lemonade mindset is of course a great mind set, it teaches us that we can make something good from something bitter. However, the most insightful lesson, is having the clarity of mind to know that the lemon can be the good gift. If we truly want to make something out of our life’s lemon lessons, we definitely need a few feasts to nourish us kinda mindset. Try and pause next time you are given lemons. Pausing allows room for inspiration and creativity to develop so we can add to our repertoire of lemon recipes and choose the feast we desire. Having a diverse arsenal of lemon recipes will be the amour that anchors us in being ready and prepared to make the bitter, sweet.
Next time life throws you some lemons, remember, you can don’t have to make just lemonade, you can create a whole feast. The key is to create something from the lemons-don’t let life’s lemons go to waste or more importantly, rob you of something you needed to understand and learn.
Life is very engaging. It is so easy to capture the goodness but most of our profound moments arise after steep lessons and periods of adjustment from the foreseen and unexpected disruptions we experience.
May I encourage you to take time to preserve the events and experiences that have forged your character and strengthned your resolve to become resilience. I can promise they will have far reaching influence. I speak from personal experience.
For a limited time [until October 3, ASCT] when you purchase our Everyday Editions Life's Lemons Collection, you will receive the Prompt Deck, which pairs perfectly with this collection.
My Best Practices for Documenting Challenges Effectly and Efficiently.
1. Choose a Suitable Format
I examine life's challenges with a journal.
Writing for me is cathartic and over the years has helped me develop emotional intelligence, mental clarity, and enhanced my creativity.
[we have just create physical journals, are you interested in a sneak peak, just leave me a comment.]
2. Be Specific
I add specific information that reflect the impact or contrubition of the event or experiences. Documenting my challenges respectfully and truthfully is essential.
3. Reflect and Learn
It's beneficial to document and analyze challenges. Reflecting on my experiences and insights has been an integral part of my learning. Documenting my stories has contextualized knowledge gained and has served as a comparative reference when additional challenges arrive.
Remember to record your survive to thrive stories. We can experience the sweet from the bitter, of this I know to be true.
Cheers
Sal
xox
Now for something totally unexpected. When you leave a comment here m[email required], we'll reward you with this little set of digital cards, because sometimes it's just nice to give than to receive. Wink !
