Life's lemon lessons

Sometimes life gives you lemons.

And wise grandmas tell us to "make lemonade."

But sometimes, in all honesty, the whole making lemonade out of lemons is a tough thing to do.

There are times when all you really want to do is throw the lemons right back at "life's" face.

Maybe it's just a product of my youth, but I think I am among friends when I say I wish life would throw us some more chocolate, marshmallows and chocolate chip cookies.

You know what I mean, the days when the waitress accidentally brings you extra pickles, when your favorite food is unexpectedly on sale, or when an old friend calls you up for a nice long chat.

Those are the chocolate days.

There is rarely a day that is completely filled with the good stuff. A lemon always seems to be lurking somewhere nearby.

Lemons are highly active in the days when you spill coffee on your clean white shirt after you get to work, someone borrows your car and leaves you their car with no gas, and your hair won't behave.

Those are the days that our grandmothers instruct us to make lemonade. Maybe it is because they are wise that they are able to see beyond our initial instinct to just throw our hands up in the air.

And maybe when you think about it, the saying isn't as flip as it first appears. Making lemonade with real lemons is quite a process and takes a lot of work. Maybe our grandmothers know that taking a bad thing and trying to manipulate it into something good is a difficult task - like making lemonade with real lemons.

But the lemons are also usually a lesson. For example, you should have probably used a travel mug for your coffee so it didn't spill and keep stain-removing wipes at hand at all times.

Maybe the lemonade that grandma is talking about is a little sip of knowledge.

For my part, I still wish that the days were much more packed with sweet tasting foods.

But I guess we need the lemons so we can taste the difference between those days and the days of the chocolate chip cookies.

Sometimes you just have to take a big bite right out of that lemon to remind you just how sour they are.