Oh I’ve bought them. I’ve bought them loose, I’ve bought them in those string bags that cut your fingers when you can’t find the scissors. I’ve bought them with Coca Cola and ice, sprinkled on salmon, floating in a pudding, squished into a cheesecake, and notably once, in two remarkably powerful bottles of limoncello.
Anyway, I’ve never been given them. And they don’t fall out of the sky. Well I guess they sort of do, if you happen to be under a lemon tree, but then, well frankly, you’ve only got yourself to blame.
But I guess the saying is a sort of metaphor for ‘difficulty’. Yes, when life throws sour-tasting old difficulties at you... turn them into... sparkling, tasty, sugared water, or something.
Bit unfair on the lemons. They’re not all bad! In fact, they’re super useful and flavoursome, as I’ve already mentioned, in Coca Cola, sprinkled on salmon, floating in a pudding, squished into a... well you get the picture. They can be delicious! And that can’t always be said of difficulties.
And anyway, what are you supposed to do to turn difficulties into ‘lemonade’? I missed the bus today, after sprinting for it but I can’t squeeze that moment into a bottle and drink it on a hot afternoon. I can learn from it! Yes? I could leave earlier. But that’s more like saying, ‘when life gives you lemons, er... just learn how to duck.’
And that doesn’t seem to be the spirit of the thing.
No, I think it’s more about seeing difficulties as opportunities - which is a thing I struggle with. It’s much easier to howl with frustration as you puff the last few paces to the bus stop, and the bus revs off down the road. But the wait taught me more patience, and there was an opportunity to do a thing I wouldn’t have had time to if I’d been on plan. Perhaps, many lemons only make a small amount of lemonade sometimes.
How about when life gives you rain... er... put up an umbrella. Well rain’s rather lovely sometimes too. And it’s not quite the same, unless you’re somehow making an umbrella out of rainwater. In fact is there anything that’s purely negative, annoying, infuriating, difficult?
Wasps. There you go. When life gives you a wasp’s nest, call the... guy... the extermination guy... and er, take the... picnic inside, it’ll soon be too cold for them anyway so don’t... worry about it?
Catchy. Well. I’m more likely to be given lemons than wasps. In fact, if you want to break the pattern of a lifetime and dish out some lemons, I reckon I can pair them with a glass of something sweet. Then maybe you can come on over and have a party in my messy old flat. Actually, I think that’s the real end of the thought isn’t it: Coca Cola, cheesecake, salmon, puddings, limoncello... it all sounds like a party to me. Bring on the lemons.
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