Lemonade from Lemons

Photography by William Walther
WjW Photography

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade and ask for salt and tequila!” ~unknown
 
To me, life has become a series of reframing situations that I used to label as “bad” into opportunities for growth.  This is not always easy, but with practice it continues to become easier.  This week, I was teaching classes and a person dropped out because the class didn’t meet her expectations.  My first reaction was to be upset with myself and of course my ego and pride got involved that I wasn’t good enough and just as I was about to spiral into all of the self-doubt thoughts, I became aware of what I was thinking.  I stopped the cycle and asked myself, "what I should learn from this situation?"  The “me from my twenties” would have blamed the other person, but at least with age I have become wiser and now take responsibility – I understood that the other person was correct.  So, I realized that the communication in my email and flyers was not clear.  So, in the future I will be more conscious about what I communicate. I know what I am doing, but it obviously wasn’t clear to others in my communications.  Instead of hours and days of beating myself up, I learned something and moved on.
 
But, the great news is that I journaled about it and I opened myself to the world of infinite possibilities and realized that the lesson was not only to learn to be clearer in my communications, but that people want to have classes with longer meditations and time in silence.  So, the creative juices started flowing about creating a daylong class about going within and I am really excited about future classes.  What I had originally seen as a flaw in my character was a lesson to take my meditation classes in a new direction.  Not only did I make lemonade out of the lemons, but I am enjoying the party with tequila.  So often before in my life, I never saw my mistakes as something to capitalize and grow from, but saw them as just more proof that I am an unworthy person.  This philosophy of looking for what I am supposed to learn from mistakes and challenges allows more doors to open and to see life from a different perspective.  I am grateful to this teacher in my life.  I just have to stay open to see and learn.
 
How do you make lemonade from the lemons in your life?

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