The Lemons of Life

I am a terrible liar. Not that I am a liar but if I even try to lie, I am terrible at it. My mom can usually call me out if I remotely begin to tell a lie. I am also a terribly weak person. When it comes to refusing the sample of food being given out at Costco or doing five push-ups in a row, I am about as feeble as a baby chick when first hatched.

I have weaknesses for spontaneous adventures or a good sunrise. Give me a good book or an excellent movie and I am brought to tears. I have weaknesses for a good cup of hot English Breakfast tea and beautiful lyrics that match so perfectly with the beat/rhythm they are put with. I have weaknesses toward people who use compelling words and that have old fashioned mannerisms.

However, I also have a weakness for saying “I’m good” when I am actually not.

Yesterday, I had my wisdom teeth extracted. I have so many caring friends and family sending their well wishes and asking how I am. It’s lovely. But I found myself replying to the well wishes with the usual “thank you’s” and “I’m good/fine.” To tell you the truth I am not “good.”

I don’t complain much—or I try not to. But I am actually in a lot of pain and am insanely swollen. Readers, I’m not telling you this to have your sympathy. But when realizing my weakness for saying “I’m good” I also realized this is just one of life’s lemons.

Given the phrase, “When life gives you lemons…” what comes to mind?

Squeeze the lemons in life’s eyes
Make lemonade (or lemon bars)
if you see melons you may be dyslexic
Teach yourself how to juggle
Post an artsy picture
Make orange juice and leave the world wondering how you did it
take them (hey, free lemons!) because life doesn’t give much away for free
Dye them green and sell them as limes (ha suckers)
Ask for more
Say “thank you” and grow

When I say, getting your wisdom teeth extracted is ones of “life’s lemons,” I actually mean its a rite of passage. In life we all have to eventually experience certain things; getting your wisdom teeth out is one of those things we—or most of us—have to endure.

To me life’s lemons are rites of passage. Whether that be getting your first job, going to prom , falling in love, breaking a bone, or getting your wisdom teeth out, we all experience these lemons of life.

So readers, this week on Uptown Maven I do not have much for you being the condition I am in, but here is a bit of advice: when life gives you lemons, take them and grow from them and the experiences you have when given the opportunity. It may seem like a cliché but make lemonade from those experiences and share it with others because they just might learn something too.

Plunging beneath the salty waves of truth, this week I learned to enjoy the lemons of life. Instead of letting this experience blend in with the bland and mundane cycle of life, I will inhale the promise that instead of saying “I’m good,” its okay to show my weaknesses. It’s okay to be not “good.”

So the next time someone asks me how I am, better than saying the simple “I’m good,” I will embrace whatever lemon of life I am going through. I will admit how humanly weak I am and how eventually the growth and strength of the “lemon”—whatever that may be—will magnify how beautifully strong I will become in the end.

Enjoying the Bittersweet Lemon, your Uptown Maven