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Lemon and Lemondade

Namaste

Last season gave us a bountiful harvest of lemons. Our house, and our life was literally filled with lemons. Adhering to the saying “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” , we made lemonade. A lot of lemonade. We made pickled lemons too. We gave away lemons to neighbors, friends, assisted living centers, community kitchens, and passers by. All of them made lemonade. A lot of lemonade. We were still left with lemons. A lot of lemons.

Among the different recipes of lemonades that we followed with the lemons from our backyard, our favorites have been ginger lemonade and
mint lemonade. Both ginger and mint add an extra twist of freshness to the lemonade.

While we were still dealing with the literal lemons, life gave another set of lemons. This time, not literal. This time it was not just in our backyard, it was scattered all over the world. These lemons came in the form of a virus, hell bent upon disturbing all our lives.

I have often wondered how many of us are able to make lemonade out of this situation. Most of us made delicious lemonades in the beginning of the pandemic. We stayed home and stayed positive. We found innovative ways of doing work from home and spending time online. Motivating others to do the same, we posted videos on social media of awesome home cooked food and some amazing DIY’s. Kids were relearning to spend so much time at home with family. Parents were discovering hidden talents in their kids and in themselves.

Lemonade stands popped up in every corner of the world with people making sanitizers and selling them online, stores shifting to an online and more cost effective business model, organizations developing tools to help employees work from home and making money out of that etc.

As days went by, and the lemons did not stop pouring in, we got weary and tired of making lemonades. Some of us have literally run out of sugar and, some of us have run out of clean jars to store the lemonade in.

By the way, the lemons in our backyard have slowly become lesser in number and hence manageable.

Can’t wait for the time when I can say the same for the virus-lemons.

This blog post would be incomplete if I don’t throw some light to the origin of the phrase “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune. Lemons suggest sourness or difficulty in life; making lemonade is turning them into something positive or desirable.

Wikipedia

The term was used in 1915 (by Elbert Hubbard), 1916 and then later in 1948 by Dale Carnegie who used it in his book – How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

A poetic rendition appeared in The Rotarian in 1940

“Life handed him a lemon,
As Life sometimes will do.
His friends looked on in pity,
Assuming he was through.
They came upon him later,
Reclining in the shade
In calm contentment, drinking
A glass of lemonade.

The Rotarian

Human history is filled with instances of people bouncing back from adversities and evolving to outlive it. As all of us hope and pray that we get back to a life as soon as possible, we have to find ways to make lemonade whenever we can. Let us hope we get out of this, stronger and wiser.

The tasty lemonade that I was sipping while writing this article makes me optimistic about the future.

Cheers!