| Comment of the Day - The Last Day of 2008 There is a saying that when life throws you lemons, make lemonade. This is a great statement, but it's not as simple as it seems. Let me break it down for you: Perfect Lemonade Recipe Ingredients - 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
- 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
- 1 cup lemon juice
- 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
Method 1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely. 2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice. 3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it. Serve with ice, sliced lemons. Serves 6. So life throws you lemons. Those lemons can be you losing your job. A death in the family. A broken relationship. A physical ailment or a chronic diagnosis. You lose your house to a hurricane. You lose 40% of your 401K. Your ARM balloons and you can't pay your mortgage. Your kid leaves home. Your wife wants a divorce. Your business fails. Lemons in life come in all shapes and sizes. And sometimes you get one lemon and other times you feel like someone shook the whole damn tree and every lemon just happens to drop in your lap all at once. At first, we sit there and squeeze those lemons, trying to understand them. Asking the questions of why? why me? over and over again. Ask those questions. Beat the dead horse. Get all that juice out. Now that you have lemon juice, make lemonade. But you can't make lemonade with just lemons. You need to get the right ingredients and you need to put in a little work to make turn those lemons into something sweet and satisfying: 1) Gather the sugar, the sweet stuff in life. Find your friends. Make new friends. Find your family again. Find your faith and read the Word. The sweet balances the tart in the lemons, so if your lemons are strong or plentiful, find more sugar. 2) Add the water and make that simple syrup. Leave the lemons aside for a while. Let the sweet stuff dissolve into your life. Be vulnerable. Listen more. Read more. Pray more. Travel to new places be it near or far. Go out on a limb - if that limb holds, you'll have a better view. If that limb breaks, laugh at yourself and climb out to another. Hustle at work. Serve in the church. Reachout to those in need. Experience new things. Enjoy your friends and live live together. 3) Add the lemon juice and the simple syrup to the pitcher and chill it out. The sweetness of the simple syrup you've made should balance the tartness of the lemons. 2008 was a year of lemons for me, but sitting here now I see that I'm pretty fortunate. I've got high quality sweetener in my life. Not that fake sweetener that causes cancer, or that high fructose corn syrup that makes kids fat, but some real deal saccharides: -
New Life Crew, a place that gives me life. -
TNT Crew, with more races to come. -
Event Planning Crew, who have opened my eyes to a world of possibilities. GHan. Chon. You two are amazing. -
Boxing Crew, whos lips I bust on a consistent basis. -
My photographers, who challenge me CONSTANTLY. Especially you, Pete. -
Accountability Brothers, who changed my life. -
My Discipler and his Wife, one feeds my belly, but both feed my soul. -
My World Travelers, who are down for whatever. Where ever. -
My Business Partners, who will allow me to retire by 34. -
My Coworkers, who are pretty sweet day to day, except when they want to eat at Subway. -
2008 Smoky Mountain Group, soon to be 2009 [Location TBD] Group and 2010 Alaska Group. -
Family Group, who teach me how to express my views while respecting others. Kinda. -
Brewery Tour group, who helps me appreciate beer and free preztels. -
BBQ / Frying Crew, who takes things to a new level. Paul Park, I'm so glad you're back to lead this endeavor. -
Habitat for Humanity Crew, who opened my eyes to the joy of serving... in the bitter cold. -
Old Friends, who I don't see often, but when I do it's always a good time. The perfect lemonade, like life, is about balance. Without the tart, the sweet would be overbearing. Without the sweet, the tart would be unbearable. Unfortunately, we can't control the amount of tart in our lives. Bad things happen to good people all the times. Sometimes, terrible things happen to the most innocent of people. We can only control the sweetness in life... sometimes that sweetness is readily available and other times, we need to go out and get it. Seek after it in your life. Reach out and find that sweetness in 2009. Dissolve it in your life with time and energy and when you bring it all together, hopefully your life will be refreshing for those who partake in it. Happy New Year All! Dave |
