Why Lemonade Rain?

I’m a sucker for motivational speeches. Especially when they’re about goals and becoming amazing. I can give myself chills with the potential awesomeness of who I could be. My favorite question to be asked during the presentation is:

What did you like to do as a child? Or, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As the motivational speaker asks this, the entire room of listening people silently ponder what could be waiting for them just around the corner if they could just remember who they are. Being the dreamer that I am, I sit there amongst the crowd scribbling madly about all the things I still want to be. The only trouble is that I was, and still am, quite impulsive in my actions and diverse in my tastes. I can remember at least 5 things that I wanted to be when I was 9 - a fashion designer, an artist, a photographer, an architect - but, mostly, I wanted to be an author. I loved to read. I devoured books late into the night and scared myself silly reading Nancy Drew with a flashlight.

Although I love the idea that I could fulfill my childhood dreams, I believe our adult experience factors into our dreams for ourselves. The equation could look something like this:

Childhood Dreams + Adult Self + Life Experience = ?

My life experience recently was very simple. Life gave me lemons. Or, in an effort to mix metaphors, the rain poured down on my little family for a couple of years. It poured and poured until I felt like I was drowning, and in so doing I discovered something. I discovered that, when push comes to shove and there is no air to be had, I’ll write about it. I'll write about my successes and failures in order to understand them myself.

So, ‘let it rain lemonade’ and we will raise a glass together to that brilliant version of ourselves that we have always hoped to be.

Join me.

Cheers!