Lemonade

We’ve all heard the saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It’s a concept that’s easy to understand but extremely hard to practice in real life.

We got handed some lemons recently. A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I were driving home from a lovely outing to the beach. We stopped at an intersection, waiting for the red light; out of no where a car hits us from the rear at around 40~50 km/h, pushing our car into the middle of the intersection.

Luckily, my husband and I were not severely injured.

However, we both sustained soft tissue injuries, and my old shoulder injury was exacerbated—to the point that I could not physically put on a pullover shirt. I was disappointed and sad because, after years of rehabilitation and conditioning, I am now back to taking painkillers and muscle-relaxants again. Not only will I have to halt my boxing and BJJ, I will now have to return to physiotherapy (for who knows how long?).

Adding to that is the fact that our beloved car will most likely be totaled despite so much love and work we put into it in recent months.

All this is trouble enough, not to mention the amount of “work” required for the insurance claim; all the evidence must be collected, all the procedures followed, and all the paperwork submitted.

It’s easy to get lost amidst all the things life throws at you. Sometimes there seems to be no hope, no possibility of a positive outcome. “How the hell do I get a lesson out of all this?” you ask yourself; and sometimes you think, “I didn’t ask to be taught a lesson. Just leave me alone!” I totally understand because that what I think too.

But let me ask you something: do bad things ever stop happening because of your reaction?

No. Bad things happen, and regardless of how we respond, the bad things will follow through with their consequences. For example, when our plane was delayed in Mexico, causing us to miss our connecting flight, which meant missing out on prepaid accommodation and tour—a chain of negative events that we couldn’t do anything about. So we did all the things we were supposed to do and made all the inquiries and complaints to relevant departments. Then we chose to move on. We moved on because we knew we couldn’t fight life. Life never stops for anyone. Time never stops for anyone. We do all that we can, and then we just have to accept the outcome. Screaming, crying, and worry may be how we cope—but they never can change consequences or outcomes. On the other hand, if we can accept the outcome (even if grudgingly), then it’s possible for us to see that our lives are much, much more than just this one event; then we realize that we still have much, much more to be thankful for. When you can find the sugar, you can make the lemon into lemonade.

So I now have to learn to do exactly that: worry less. This week I’ve done all the things I can do to recover from the accident; I’ve stayed away from physical training, I’ve taken all my prescribed medications, I’ve taken our car to be appraised, and I’ve filed all the insurance claim papers. Now it’s time to breathe and be grateful for all the other things in life. It’s time to make some lemonade.