I woke up yesterday feeling really great and ready to take on the world. I had a meeting at 9AM and was getting ready for a busy day.
Somone gave me Lemons
About 30 minutes before I had to leave, my son came to me and said that my car had been broken into in the middle of the night. Someone had broken the driver side window and stole my GPS unit. After a conversation with my neighbor I discovered it happened sometime after 4:20AM.
I do have to admit that I had a little bit of shock and anger related to that incident. I felt violated that somebody did not respect my property and would break a window to steal something from my car. This was my first time to experience this.
That kind of changed my plans for the day. I suddenly had several more things to do; contact my insurance agent, file a police report, get my window replaced, find my proof of purchase for the GPS unit.
At this point I had been given some pretty sour lemons. What was I going to do? I had two paths to follow: I could be a victim, dwell on the negative and suffer, or I could let go of the anger and be thankful it was only a Window and my GPS unit and move on with life. I chose to take the latter path.
Make some Lemonade
So, what do I mean by making lemonade? Well, lemonade is made with three ingredients: lemons, water and sugar. I mean take the sour lemons and pour equal amounts of water and sugar on it. The lemons are your circumstances. The water is forgiveness (letting go of the anger). The sugar is to find the good in it (learning experience, remembering what you still have).
You are in control
Remember, when external forces affect your life, you are still in control of how you react. You can be a victim (focus on the anger) or you can make lemonade (let go of the anger) and focus on the good things you still have in life.
I’m suddenly thirsty for some lemonade, maybe you are too. I found this Perfect Lemonade Recipe to make some lemonade with real lemons.