Sunday, March 3, 2013

It Takes more than Lemons

So I haven't been to present on social networks for some time now due to a situation I was in.  I was offered an opportunity that although would have completely changed my life for the better and provided everything I would need to take my career to the next level, it ended up falling through due to circumstances outside my control.  For a while after receiving the devastating news I felt like I had nothing, as if abandoning my prior life to make room for this new one had destroyed everything I had and I contemplated simply destroying Sir JET all together.  It took a lot of negotiating with myself to convince me there was still a chance my dream of being a full-time entertainer could still happen. 
A handful of people during my social network absence were emailing my asking if I was still alive, and I jokingly responded to them the same phrase I've used for years in rough times: "life gave me lemons and now I'm making lemonade."  That's something we say when we're trying to communicate that we're making good out of a bad situation.  This morning though, I thought about it more.
You can't make lemonade out of lemons.  If all you have is lemons the best you can do is squish the lemons and make lemon juice.  To make lemonade you also need water, a knife, sugar, and a container to put all the ingredients into.
All my life I've been saying I've got lemons, lemons being problems.  I never stopped to think that in order to make the lemonade, meaning the good that can come out of troublesome situations, I needed to have these other ingredients and kitchen tools.  The thing is, the ingredients and the tools are your resources, the things you have under your belt that can help you turn those situations around.  For me, my tools and ingredients are things like my current EP, my creative sense of style, my system of entertainment connections in Los Angeles, the love and support of my mother and other family members, and much more.  I realized after looking into all that I had I really could try something new using the contacts and resources I already have, and I'm taking myself out of my problem.
Basically this is what I'm saying: you can't make lemonade out of just lemons.  If you are focused on the problem and all you see is this big problem you have, the most you can do is make lemon juice, meaning more problems. You have to take the time to look in the kitchen to see what you've already got and use what you have to create that lemonade (or maybe you have an oven, flour, and a pie pan and want to make a tart ^_^).  As Mary Morrissey would say, take the good you have and bless it.  You never know just what you can create with what you have until you start searching the cabinets for ingredients.

1 comment:

  1. Joel--
    I really appreciate your thoughts and reflections. You are right--we can't make lemonade without some extra ingredients--often the friends and supporters we isolate ourselves from when the lemons are really sour. You're not alone. None of us need to be alone.

    Tom Gauthier (Milwaukee)

    ReplyDelete