When life gives you LEMONS make LEMONADE

Hi! there...it's been a while! 

When life serves you LEMONS you can always make LEMONADE!

This is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism

and a can-do attitude  in the face of adversity or misfortune.  

The 'acidity' of lemons versus the 'sweetness' of lemonade.

 

No... I'm not going to elaborate on this phrase

nor give you a recipe...

although today is the first day of summer

 and who doesn't like to have a fresh glass

of homemade lemonade  in the summertime!!  Right!

 This phrase came to mind as I was translating a text

from Danie Beaulieu's book I'm working on.

It surely 'rang a bell' with me and had an impact also,

especially thinking back to the unfortunate circumstances

in which we all went through in April

 concerning the ESL classes.

I thought I would share it with you today!

So here a great little story which ends

in a very positive note and has a great outcome!

ENJOY! and have a great weekend.

Don't fret, summer is really on ts way :)

Suzanne
 

THE OLD MULE WHICH WAS DOOMED TO DIE.

There once was a farmer who owned an old mule. One day the mule fell to the bottom of the well and the farmer heard the mule begging him to come rescue him. After carefully studying the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule for a moment and decided that neither the mule nor the well were worth the trouble of keeping so he wasn’t going to make an effort to save them. At that point he called all his neighbors, told them what had happened and enlisted their help to transport and dump enough soil filling the well and burying the old mule, thus resolving the problem.
At the beginning of the operation, the mule was downright hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors shoveled the earth into the well and onto its back, the mule was suddenly struck by an idea. He decided that whenever a shovel-load of earth landed on his back, he could shake it off and get up on it! So this is what he did, repeating to himself with courage shovelful after shovelful:  «Shake it off and shake it off ... and get back on top of it! » Without worrying about the pain of the blows on his back and as distressing as it may have seemed, the old mule fought his panic and continued shaking off the earth and getting up on top of it.  It was not long before the old mule, crippled and exhausted, reached the top and finally stood triumphantly on the edge of the well! What could have buried him alive proved to be precisely what saved him, using his misfortune to his advantage.
Such is life! If we face our problems and we decide to solve them constructively, refusing to panic, being bitter nor dwelling in self-pity, we will then see how adversities that "should" overwhelm us have within them the potential and the opportunity to be used to our advantage. Never fear trying something new!

 

  

 

A TOUCHING STORY ABOUT FAMILY

We all have our own 'definitons' of FAMILY.

We also have our own EXPERIENCE of familly.

Here is the first from Wiktionary:

 A father, mother and their sons and daughters;

 also called nuclear family

Now here a more general and 'modern' definition:

A group of people related by blood, marriage, law, or custom.

 

In Diane's text that follows you will find another definition

and also Diane's EXPERIENCE of family

which puts the HEART into the definition.

Enjoy!

Suzanne

 

 

I’m not going to speak about my wedding or

 when my sons or my grandchildren were born. 

No! My title is : FRIDAY THE 13th, SEPTEMBER 1963.

 My parents wanted four children.  Ten months after their wedding, they had my sister.  In those days everyone around them counted!  Ouf, it was OK.  Four years and half later, I arrived!  But after perfection, ooops me… nothing. Nine years later, they decided to adopt another girl.  They followed the procedure and the HAPPY day arrived: Friday the 13th! They had to choose a baby to adopt and they came back home with her.

They were in Nicolet.  It was inside the hospital and the crèche had a maximum of 22 babies.  They had selected five before for my parents arrived.  The babies were sitting in highchairs with pretty dresses on.  But one baby was on the floor, only wearing a camisole.  She had a sore throat and a runny nose.  My parents saw her and at that moment said “That’s our girl!” Johanne became my sister.

While this was happening, I was at school.  After class, I went to my friend’s.  I must have called home every fifteen minutes.  Finally my father answered!  I could go home and see my sister for the first time.  We lived in Victoriaville.  I had my bicycle.  I had to take a street, because there was a crescent, I had to pass through a field on a little path and finally to my backyard.  The kitchen had a Bay Window and I saw the highchair with a little head on the side.  I pedaled faster and faster and I rode up the hill.

I can’t tell you how much that day meant for me, I can only tell you that I tried to go up that hill many times after that day and I never ever succeeded again.