Note to Self: Sometimes Life is Difficult. Lemonade is a Stupid Example

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What do you do when life gives you cabbages? Make cabbagade?

But seriously, life giving you lemons is a really bad example. Lemons are so full of potential and taste great to begin with. Besides, lemonade is easy! Lemons, check. Water, check. Sugar, check. Mix them all, check. How is that anything like the trials of life?!

I think it should be more like, "when life gives you feces, plant a garden."

When you plant a garden, you take stuff that stinks, and you spread it on a bunch of hard ground. Then you have to mix the two together. Sure, if you have a ton of cash, you can get a tractor and do it the easy way. Otherwise, it's back breaking labor. You dig until you're worn out, tired, and feeling some sense of futility. If you're really feeling it, you see the stretch of land you've just violated and feel accomplishment. Once you've finished all of that, you grab the seeds you're going to plant. But that part's not simple either. You dig holes, properly spaced, and make sure you don't put too many seeds in. Once you've planted a billion seeds in your freshly pooped in garden (that's right, you're covered in the feces from before), you get to wait.

Waiting however, is NOT that simple. Waiting means you water the garden every day (sometimes less depending on what you planted). What do you get for all this work? More waiting! So then, you do this for a week. If you're lucky, or if you've prepared enough ahead of time, you just keep waiting (maybe a sprout pops up). For the rest of us, there are weeds. So you spend the next week watering and pulling weeds. At the end of the week, you'll most likely see more weeds again. So all your hard work is rewarded with yet more work.

Eventually, depending on what you planted, you get to see one of the most gratifying experiences in the world. Buds. Some of your plants start to bud, and you just know that next comes the fruit/vegetable you've been waiting for. If you've planted onions, carrots, radishes, potatoes, or other subterranean producers, it's harder to tell, but you'll still start to see signs.

Then comes the crazy weather. If you're horribly unfortunate, bad weather can come in and damage them. If you're doing better, or if you know what to look for, you can stop the bad weather from having a negative effect. Buckets over your plants to keep hail, frost, rabbits, deer, or children from destroying everything. The point is, all kinds of unforeseen things can happen to hurt your efforts. If you've done due diligence, maybe you've found a way to deal with everything. Sometimes though, you can't know what's coming until it comes. You just deal with everything to the best of your abilities.

After all this work, what do you get? That depends really. You could have massively successful results. Or all your hard work could be worth a few strawberries. You know what, though? If you have the right outlook, it was all worth it. A few strawberries is success. A bigger one than you may realize. That few strawberries represents what you've done right. They represent a job well done. They represent the potential fruit of a beautiful garden. Imagine how much better it can be next time. Now that you've had a little success, and learned so many lessons. How much better will your garden grow next year?

So, here I am. Setbacks, confusion, a steep learning curve, and a couple of strawberries. Sure, it's frustrating. It's hard to make a new path. It's a challenge. I could see this as a terrible difficulty, and give up. Or, I can see this as more opportunity to learn, grow, and be better at what I've been trying to do. Watch out world. The Cannibal Cabbage is figuring things out.