When there’s too many lemons….

Close up of cut lemons

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

But what about if life throws you too many lemons and you can’t hold on to them all and there are just too many lemons? Or you don’t like lemonade.

So what happens if someone hands you a grapefruit. You look at it for a while, you don’t know what’s going to happen with it or whether you’ll like it.

But then one day you’re just fed up with all the damn lemons so you give the grapefruit a go. And you find that you quite like pink lemonade, and the more grapefruits you have, the more you like it.

Two cocktails in glasses

OK, so it’s nowhere near as eloquent as those inspirational quotes with beautiful landscape pictures in the background, but it’s a good way to sum up my life at the moment. The last couple of years have been a real rollercoaster, involving some of my worst moments and some huge life lessons. It started when I decided to leave my steady pay-the-bills career, with visions of becoming a fabulous working from home mum who would glide effortlessly from a glittering new social media career to crafts with my children and whipping up homemade masterpieces.

Instead I found that working from home and being self-employed was not for me. It was too easy to be distracted by other things and stepping out of my comfort zone was too much of a challenge. I craved the anonymity and stability of my old career, despite swearing blind that I’d never go back. In fact now I’m back in employment and working for a completely different company than my last, and I absolutely love it.

I also experienced the loss of my dad a year ago. Whilst not unexpected, it was the first time that someone really close to me had passed away and I didn’t know how I would react. I’ve learnt a huge amount about myself during the last year and I’m learning to live my life without my dad in it. It’s by no means easy but I’m getting there slowly.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that life can be shit sometimes and sometimes that can last a while. Maybe something will happen that changes your life for ever.

But actually, life goes on and inside you you have the strength to make the best of the situation for yourself and your family, even though it doesn’t feel like it at the time.

You might have to find what your new normal is, but you will get there.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

11 Replies to “When there’s too many lemons….

  1. Wow! what a lovely article. It is important sometimes to take a step back and
    re-adjust. If someone offers me free lemons, I take them. Free stuff is cool… #ItsOK

  2. It’s amazing isn’t it? One day you can feel like your whole life is a disaster and you are consumed with grief and misery…but then you can look back and say, wow! I survived and suddenly you feel so much stronger. See, all the cliche’s are there for a reason. It just might not seem it at the time.
    It sounds like you are on the right track now, well done for squeezing those lemons x
    #itsok

  3. I really enjoyed your concept of using the lemons and grapefruit! Equally I’m so sorry to hear you lost your Dad, I lost mine to cancer very suddenly in 2011. Nothing ever prepares you for the death of a parent. Sending my love #itsok

  4. Absolutely, sometimes you really do have to take a step back from it all to re-evaluate yourself. And that can take time. I think the key is to not put too much pressure on yourself to get there too quickly. A lovely article #itsok

  5. Lovely post Gemma. I know what you’re meaning – I’ve been there too. You think there’s no hope, but somehow you do find the strength and you learn to live within the parameters of the new normal, as you said. Sorry to hear about your dad, but glad you are finding your way. Thanks for sharing this touching post with us at #itsok

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