When life gives you lemons...

...make lemonade.

...ask for salt and tequila.

...keep them because hey: free lemons!

...find the kid with the papercut.

...blame Adam and Eve for eating all the good fruit.

...duck.

you've heard it all, right? so why when something so unexpected happens in our lives does it come as such a surprise? the only sure thing in life IS change. we all know this. we've all experienced it. not only that, but we've all survived it. sure, it might have been a painful process, but you're still here right?

it would sound cliche of me to say, be thankful. because the truth is, it could be worse. it could always be worse. no one wants to hear it, let alone admit it, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.

bad things happen to good people. friends will disappoint us. those we love will let us down. people lie. cheat. steal. manipulate. life is unfair sometimes. it's complicated. it often times doesn't make sense. so when life gives us lemons (because it WILL at some point in time throw them your way), what do we do?

cliche as it is, lemonade won't solve world hunger. or a broken heart. or an illness.

i don't have an answer.

i'm sure i could come up with some genious explination or funny catch phrase if i tried hard enough, but after the kind of weekend i had, i got nothin'. except this...

i was at the gym saturday doing squats next to an older gentleman. he looked like he was in his 70s and had a nice tan glow to him. he kind of reminded me of a younger (and less creepy) Hugh Hefner. our eyes met and we exchanged smiles. i decided to walk over to him.

"what's your secret?" I asked.
he stared at me blankly. i wasn't sure if it was because of the horrible aroma i was exuding, or if he genuinely wasn't sure where i was going with it.

"what's your secret to being so fit?" I asked in more detail.

i had hoped he understood what i meant without adding "at your age" to the end of my question.

"just keep going" he said smiling at me.

i stood there thinking about what he had said. it probably didn't mean that much to him, but it did to me. i smiled to myself and thought, "now isn't that the secret of life".

i don't have all the answers. all i know is when my friends hurt, i hurt. sometimes i make stupid decisions, and the consequences aren't always fun. learning the hard way really is hard. but life happens. lemons happen.

what you do with them, well that's up to you. we all find ways to cope. the important thing is that we keep going.