When Life Gives You Lemons...

Ciri

Member
What will you do when life gives you lemons? Now, you might ask what are these lemons that life gives you?

“Lemons” is a figurative word used in this context to mean pains, sorrow, frustration, etc.

When live gives you lemons, you have two options:

1. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
2. When life gives you lemons, make orange juice and make the world wonder how the hell you did it.

Now, tell us how do you make lemonade or orange juice from the lemons?
 
I live in the USA.  It's easy to change lemons into lemonade.  There are so many opportunities to improve your quality of life, and to turn something bitter into something sweet.  So I generally do not complain.  I follow the example of the Apostle Paul who said:  “I have learned how to be content, no matter what my circumstances.”  Because sometimes in this life, you can't always always make lemonade – meaning, you can not always change that unpleasant situation that you're in.  You can not control the “external”.  But you can control the “internal”, i.e.  your mind, your attitude, your behavior, your reaction, your response, etc.

I knew of a man who did not live in a free country like the USA.  He was put in prison for his faith.  They gave him the worst job as punishment.  He had to clean an area of the prison that smelled so bad, even the prison guards would stay at a distance.  They were so far away from him that they could not hear him.  He would use that “punishment” to pray, to mediate, to sing spiritual songs, and uplift his spirit.  He was in prison for practicing his faith and yet he was still in that prison practicing his faith.  He could not change his external environment.  But he could control his inner spirit.

That man's example is what I think of when I get ready to murmur and complain about my “lemons”.
 
For most people, making lemonade from lemons is not possible, let alone making orange juice. No matter how optimistic you are no matter, how hard you try, something you cannot make lemons, you cannot make orange juice. This is the hard truth of life. You lost your loved ones, you lost your job, you lost your home, you lost your limbs, what can you do now to make lemonade. You just have to squeeze lemons and drink it and swallow the sour life.
 
When I experienced excessive stress in my job, my wife asked me to resign instead of getting sick. It was a sad decision for me but later on I realized that I was already in the retirement age so maybe I can have a good life. True enough, my wife provided everything and I enjoyed life with no more job-related stress. My fear was the lack of occupation but I forgot that I have so many things to do when I do not have a job anymore.
 
When my life is filled with pains there is only one thing that's going to make me feel better again and it's money. Money is the next best thing that makes me happy, so if I can get my hands on money, I will feel okay.
 
When life gives you lemons, you can add lemons to a glass of water, add honey and make lemonade. When you get lemons try to find honey. What I am trying to say is no matter what you get from life, you need to try to utilize every occassions.
 
I am generally an optimistic and patient person, hence when life gives me lemon I wait for the right opportunity to not only make lemonade or orange juice but also use lemons for dressing the salad! While I wait, I use that time to engage myself elsewhere, like take up a new hobby, and that's how I go through the tough times.
 
I turn my difficult moments into something good through the lessons I learnt from each failure. During moments of distress, I make sure to change my thinking to better concentrate on discovering valuable learning opportunities from the situation I'm in.
 
I have been primed to always believe there is a way out of every situation regardless of how terrible the situation is. That shapes my mind to always focus on finding the way out of every unpleasant situation. And with that, I always have made lemonades out of lemons.
 
When life gives me lemons, I embrace challenges, stay positive, learn from experiences, and turn struggles into personal growth.
 
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