Thanks for Making Lemonade

I read my Mother's Day Card from James this morning.  In his best Kindergarten print, he wrote:   "Happy Mother's (backward "s," love that) Day!  I love you!  Thank you for meken leanad."  I looked at James and pointed to the last two words on the card, "What does this say, James."  James stared and me and blinked, seemingly puzzled that I asked.  "Thank you for making lemonade," he replied.  "Oh, you're welcome, sweetie," I said.  "Happy Mother's Day, mom," said James as he got up from his seat and walked away.  I laughed as I thought, "This one thing I do --  make gallons of "lemonade" (Crystal Light, really) -- is important to him? This is the thing that mattered?"  Don't get me wrong; I'll take my thank you's whenever I can get them.  And, if my daily mixing of Crystal Light lemonade is important to James, I'm good with that.

Yet, the more I thought about it today, the more I saw the wisdom in those words, not because I think James was trying to make a statement; rather, I thought, "Isn't that what moms do every day?"  We make lots of lemonade, whether we want to or not.

We take the lemons that our kids (and spouse's sometimes) come home with -- the playground words, the friend who sat with someone else at lunch, the difficult class, the unreasonable teacher, boss, or client, the traffic or late train -- and squeeze them into lemonade.  Sometimes, we add lots of sugar and make the lemonade sweet.  On those days, the lemonade is easy to drink, especially if served with cookies.  Sometimes, though, the lemons are really sour and no amount of sugar is going to make that lemonade sweet.  We drink it anyway, even without cookies, make a sour face, and it's soon gone.

Then, those lemons find their way into our kitchens.  They're no good; they're soft; their clean, bright scent has disappeared.  Those lemons -- a parent's illness, a friend's cancer, a death, a job loss -- sit in a bowl, as we figure out what to do with them.  We definitely can't make them into lemonade.  They sit there.  Eventually, we realize that there's only one thing to do. 

Compost them and pray that, after some time, those very same lemons will help make our own gardens grow.

Happy Mother's Day!  Thanks for making lemonade.