When Life Hands Me Lemons, at Times, I Do Not Make Lemonade

Sometimes being self-aware and leaning into your realities is all you need to do.

Photo by Bruna Branco on Unsplash

I am a big supporter and advocate for positivity, happiness, fulfillment, and radiant joy. And a firm believer and advocate I will continue to be.

Still, let us be honest. Do we live every waking minute on cloud nine as though life is always a bowl of cherries?

I do not.

Consequently, always making lemonade when life throws me lemons is advice I find not as feasible in all aspects.

Sure, I can turn each opportunity into a learning moment, but aren’t there some days when I should be allowed to be?

Whatever that “be” may be.

There are days when I want to be left alone to juice my lemons without the additives of anything sweetening that will eventually turn my beverage into “lemonade.”

Simply put, I am learning to lean into the sourness of some life experiences and openly embrace some of the less-than-sweet encounters.

Why, may you ask?

Because the next time I encounter my groves of lemons, I will have grown some backbone to stand taller and pick each one with confidence.

I would be aware of the sour taste, but even more, I would have experiential knowledge that I can handle and digest this taste without chasing after a sweetening agent to dilute the same.

Life is not always what we want or make it out to be.

There are positives and negatives. Sweet and sour. But how we handle our experiences ultimately makes or breaks us.

Sweet has its place. And so does sour. Embrace each on its own.

How I get back on track

Once I have allowed myself the grace to be honest about each experience, I pick myself up and continue my journey.

I journey on with the knowledge that I do not have to be always peachy.

I do not always have to be correct and have things figured out. I am learning to cut myself some slack from the high-achiever, high-pressure bar I have established for myself.

I am learning to take care of myself, which looks and feels as personal as I imagine it should.

Life is about living and learning from varied experiences

That means we must embrace these experiences that may be less than favorable but also help shape who we are.

The encounters we have along the way and the lessons we learn can be the primer for someone else’s journey.

Remember, we are social beings. Nothing that happens to us is in isolation. What we are going through, either someone has been through the same or something similar, or our testimony from our test will help someone else on their life’s journey.

We learn from our lows as much as our highs.

Not that you need my permission, but if you ever need a nudge or a little affirmation, let me tell you it is ok to enjoy your lemons as zesty as they are.

Life is real.

It is not a reality show worthy of a performance or a pretense that we all have things figured out and every day is fun-filled.

Being purposeful and driven, we strive to be better versions of ourselves daily.

We are being intentional in the way we live.

Most assuredly, I become more authentic each day when I spend time assessing and embracing the whole me, comprising what makes my life sweet and what makes it sour from time to time.

Standing on its premise, I learn and grow from the sweet encounters just as I do from the sour ones.

I do not always make lemonade with my lemons, and I am embracing that to be perfectly fine.

As always, I wish to hear from you, dear reader. Are you always peachy? Is life always a bowl of cherries for you?

Do you lean into your painful experiences and let your soul feel the rawness of that experience, or are you always a ray of sunshine?