Column: Life's lemonade recipe

By Rachel Allred

Published Sept. 24, 2010

Example A: Legless, armless motivational speaker Nick Vujicic came into the world nearly 30 years ago without limbs. Daily routines are a challenge for him. Despite this, he graduated college, started a motivational speaking company called Attitude is Altitude and has confidently stated, "I love living life. I am happy."

Example B: Steven Hayes was charged with capital murder, among other things, in 2007. His trial continued this week. Allegedly, Hayes and a friend broke into a house with the intent of stealing money. In the process, three of the four family members living in the house were killed. A detective who interviewed the suspect said Hayes told him his life had sucked lately; he didn't have a job and was desperate for money.

The similarity between the two: both faced difficult, almost unbearable challenges. The difference: one has mastered the art of turning life's lemons into lemonade. The other still has things to learn.

We've all had those days. You know, the ones where you can't seem to win at anything. You forget to set your alarm and wake up when class is starting. All your stylish clothes are dirty, so you throw on old gym shorts that don't fit and a tattered shirt that doesn't match. You leave your essay at home. You spill hot cocoa all over yourself. It keeps going downhill from there. It's pretty draggish, but 24 hours later, a better day hopefully begins.

Sometimes, however, one bad day turns into two, which turn into a week, until we lose track of how many crummy days we've had. It can be a real bummer when sub par days seem to be coming at us in bulk, like toilet paper or macaroni and cheese at Sam's Club.

When the going gets tough, we're often reminded of the admonition, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It's a pretty simple phrase to consider but sometimes difficult to execute. Making a sweet beverage out of a tart fruit requires some effort.

First off, we have to be willing to pull ourselves out of our misery as best we can. Once we've resolved to face the difficult situation and give it our best shot, we can start making lemonade.

Obviously we have to start by getting the juice out of the lemon. This requires us to take the reins. If the sour situation is controlling our lives, it will beat us to a pulp. But if we're in control, we can take that sucker, cut it in half, drain it of its juice and show it who's boss.

When the juices are drained, we're left with a pretty dead lemon and a cup of sour juice. Time to make it sweet. This requires us to find some sugar, some goodness. That goodness could come from having friends and family to support us, trying to focus on the positive things, laughing at how ridiculous we look with bed hair and cocoa stains down our raggedy tee. Sometimes it's difficult to find "sugar," but with every pinch of sweetness, the sour sting diminishes.

We could sit around and hope the lemon will turn itself into lemonade. Likewise, we could wallow in our difficulties and hope our problems fix themselves, or we can accept them and make the best of them.

We are all entitled to a few bad days and grumpy moods. In fact, disappointing days can be beneficial because they can make good days seem a little better. I am not trying to undermine difficult situations or say I know Hayes' life story and exactly what he was going through. However, it would benefit us if instead of letting circumstances break us, like they did Hayes, we learned to be happy, like Vujicic.