22 Mar When Life Hands You Lemons
I was craving a grapefruit.
Maybe it was the warm, nearly-summer-like weather. Maybe it was noticing citrus blossoms were beginning to appear on the fruit trees in our backyard.
But whatever it was, I decided I would treat myself to a delicious grapefruit on this Saturday afternoon. I went to the store and brought home one perfect, ruby-red grapefruit. I took out my special grapefruit spoon. I had it all planned out. I was going to sit outside and eat it while reading a new book.
I carefully sliced the grapefruit in half. Only it wasn’t a grapefruit. It was a lemon. A giant, sour lemon.
I felt resentful toward the person who put a lemon where the grapefruits should be at the store. I had wanted things to work just right, for a lemon to never have found its way into the pile of grapefruits. I had expected everything to go just so — for expectations to go according to my plan.
As I was glaring at the lemon and feeling wronged by the world, Emma came in the kitchen. “A lemon!” she exclaimed. “Can we make lemonade?”
I once heard someone say that expectations are resentments under construction. The fact is that sometimes life hands you lemons. And you know what they say to do with those…
And we did.
And it was delicious.