When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

We are all familiar with this saying. It's symbolic. Turn something sour, sweet. Make the best from a bad situation.

Given recent developments in my life, this saying has taken up residency in the part of my brain that is trying to silence the sirens and extinguish the fires blazing in the aftermath of the explosion. Was a bomb dropped or set off? I can't tell. Perhaps I tried so very, very hard, to ignore the subtle ticking. More symbols.

I digress.

This morning, dragging myself off the couch (bed is cluttered with laundry that needs doing) I stood in the shower and thought about this echoing message, this attempted optimism.

What does it mean?

Lemons are sour. Lemonade is sweet. You make lemonade out of lemons and sugar. If you are me, you would probably use Splenda. You should also use a juicer, so your beverage does not contain floating pits. And you should probably make sure you have some ice on hand, because lemonade is best cold on a hot day. It's the first day of November though and it's chilly. It is unlikely I will want lemonade anytime soon. Again, I digress.

What I realized amid digression, however, is this: I cannot make lemonade out of only lemons. I need other ingredients. And this is the point. If I want to make lemonade, I need sugar too. I can get sugar at the store... Oh... I have to make the effort to get the sugar, myself. I have to choose to recognize that I have lemons, decide I'd rather have lemonade, get in my car, drive to the store, and buy sugar. Or put on a coat and walk to the corner cafe and stuff my pockets full of Splenda packets. Either way, I have to choose to do some work to turn the sour, sweet.

Of course I could always choose not do anything. I could let the lemons rot beside the tomatoes and butternut squash on my kitchen table. But haven't I done this already? In the end, it's only wasteful. And really, a sweet treat would be a nice change of pace. I need a change.

So this November, I am going to do something a little odd and much different. I am going to drink lemonade.



Square one, my slate is clear,
Rest your head on me my dear,
It took a world of trouble,
It took a world of fear,
It took a long time, to get back here.