Free Lemons

You know the quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? Of course you do. I've heard this many times, and I knew exactly what it meant..or so I thought. 

Sometimes you just go through a chunk of time where things are just hard. One thing after another, and you start to think you have bad luck or something. Yes, there are happy times in the middle of the hard things but they don't seem big enough to make up a difference.

That has been my life the past two years. I could do a whole article on the great things that have happened to me during this time, but I'm pretty sure I could write a short story book on the hard times. When the first trial begin almost two years ago I was told if I was just grateful for it it wouldn't be as difficult to get through. I tried, thought I was and then moved on. Then the next rough patch came, and the next, and the next.

Needless to say this whole being grateful thing just wasn't working for me. Now I'm not saying don't be grateful, not at all. Gratitude daily is so important, but being grateful for trials wasn't seeming to click.

Until last week. Like I mentioned here my world was rocked, something I'll talk about in the future when I feel that I can. Initially I was a mess, but then I saw what came of it and how it will help me become stronger.

One day someone close to me asked how I was doing and I thought about it for a second and I realized I was doing really well considering the situation. I was shocked! How in the world was this possible?! 

This above quote is exactly what happened. It wasn't that I turned my rough patch into "lemonade", like the old saying goes but that I realized hey this is a hard patch. I've got this. It is going to hurt, but hey I'm going to grow! So I didn't necessarily turn it into some huge grand positive experience or some tasty lemonade, but I saw it for face value, for exactly what it was.

Am I making any sense? It is all new to me. But I'm excited to have finally grasped this. I always thought this quote, "If life gives you lemons keep them because, hey, free lemons!" was just a funny quote but now I'm starting to think there is much more to it. 

Instead of putting pressure on myself to create this lemonade I just saw it, didn't get angry, and moved forward. I saw what I would gain from it, no matter how painful, and kept on trucking.