When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

It’s unbelievable that the world as we know it has changed drastically in less than a month.

How many of you remember a period when schools, cafes, restaurants and hotels have closed doors for an indefinite period of time?

All major sport events and tournaments, including the Olympic games in Tokyo, have been canceled or postponed. Entertainment and cultural sites such as Disneyland and the Louvre Museum in Paris have also temporarily closed doors.

Countries are closing their borders and restricting the freedom of their citizens.

Suddenly every person you meet on the street or in the grocery store becomes a “potential serial killer.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global pandemic over a new coronavirus which causes an illness known as COVID-19.

The whole world has bowed down before this new challenge and it is slowing down in an unprecedented manner.

We don’t know what will happen and we don’t know how long it will take.

It’s difficult to stay positive when you don’t have something to look forward to.

I wish I could tell you that I have found a way to deal with the current situation but similar to most of you I am also struggling.

I know exactly what I would have been doing if I didn’t have a teething 10 month old daughter to take care of and a demanding job that occupies most of my day.

In an ideal world I would have taken good care of myself and my family by cooking healthy nutritious meals, exercising and meditating on a daily basis, reading inspiring books, writing on a daily basis and staying in touch with my family and friends.

In reality each day at home is a battle with time. A battle I have been losing every single day by trying to do the impossible – striving for perfection in my role as a mother, a professional and a housewife even though I realize this is impossible, especially at this moment.

I need to learn how to live with the feeling of guilt when I have to focus on a software integration call with a customer while my daughter is crying in the other room.

It’s the same guilt that I feel when I am spending time with my daughter while my mind is calculating what’s the most efficient way to get my work done for the day.

For the past years of my life I have been practicing restricting from multitasking and performing any task at work or at home with my undivided attention. However, the current situation forces me to think, act and live in a new way.

It’s challenging, overwhelming and frustrating to not be able to perform my duties with the quality and focus that I am used to but there is only so much I can do.

Everyday I wake up and I face the new day with the experience of the previous one and the hope that the following one will be easier and more pleasant.

And day by day I notice that my family and I start getting used to the new situation. It’s not ideal but as long as we are still healthy and alive, there is nothing to complain about.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

You would ask: “What’s positive in everything that’s happening right now?

I realize that this sounds like a cliche but I truly believe that every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow.

I believe that each and everyone of us will learn something out of this crisis situation and will become a little wiser once we get through it. It will be a painful lesson but it might be one of the most valuable ones we will learn in our lifetime.

Once in a while life finds a way to remind us that we are not invincible. That the time we are given is not to be wasted because we never know how much time we’ve got left.

Life is teaching us a lesson, let’s learn!

Life is giving us lemons to remind us what’s important. In survival mode people slow down and start reflecting.

Some of us have more time than ever and need to learn what to do with it. Others need to learn how to become even more efficient in scheduling their day.

Some will be lonely while others might be fighting for “me” time at home.

Some will need to learn how to work from home, while others will be looking forward to going back to work.

Unfortunately, some of us will get sick and suffer. Some will survive and some won’t. Others will lose dear ones in the battle with the new virus.

One way or the other, we will all find what works for us. We will fall, we will fail, we will rise and eventually we will learn.

And one day, after the current bitterness passes, we will taste the sweetness again and we will appreciate it much more than we used to.

I would like to leave you with a few funny “When Life Gives You Lemons” quotes I found that I believe are applicable for the situation we are in:

“When life gives you lemons, do a lemon water detox.”
“When life gives you lemons, juice them up, plant the seeds and throw the rinds back at life.”
“When life gives you lemons, say cool, what else you got?”

Stay positive, face your challenges, learn your life lessons, take care and stay healthy.

Article image by Charity Beth Long on Unsplash