Making Lemonade from Lemons
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
I first heard this advice as a child, watching Sesame Street. It’s advice that has served me well over the years, in life, family, relationships, career, travel, and work. It’s led me to succeed in professional pursuits, join volunteer organizations and form friendships, because I’m attracted to people and groups that aren’t afraid to take the lemons and make something sweeter out of them.
Last week when I was getting ready to drive to Ottawa, Canada, for Passover at my parents’ house, we got hit with the lemons. The area had been pounded the night before with what has been called the most devastating ice storm since 1998. More than 200,000 homes lost power in Canada’s national capital (as well as more than 1.1 million in Quebec) and our parent’s house was one of those homes without electricity, the day before our family was to gather to celebrate a holiday of freedom and of course, food.
We decided to proceed with plans and loaded up cars in three different cities with coolers filled with meals we’d been preparing all week. Since we were staying at hotels and airbnb’s that did have power, we got to work upon arrival, transferring cold and frozen food from our parent’s home to our accommodations. We filled thermoses with hot water for tea, heated up platters of brisket, vegetables and kugels, brought everything back to the house and carried on with tradition.
The dining room table was moved to the living room where the afternoon sun poured through the floor to ceiling windows, helping the gas fireplace provide warmth. We bundled up with jackets and blankets and when the sun went down, we lit candles and our clever kids put opaque glass bowls over iPhone flashlights, illuminating the long table. It was a Seder to remember and while we wouldn’t have wished it to happen, it turned out to be one of those holidays that I’m sure we’ll talk about every year. We made the lemonade and it was sweet.
There’s almost always more than one way to achieve your goals but sometimes, it takes an unexpected challenge to find the solutions. Our families had a great lesson about how to take a bitter situation and, working together, we turned it into a celebration that we will long remember.
If you’ve got business challenges, try sweetening what you’re offering to clients and customers. Perhaps you need a newsletter to cultivate personal connections that build loyalty? Maybe you need to refresh your website content, to better reflect how you excel at meeting customers’ needs?
There will always be challenges and there will always be opportunities to turn adversity into something positive and desirable. Here’s to staying empowered, creative, and working together to keep life sweet.
