We have all heard the phrase “when life gives you lemons you make lemonade”. However, when I am in the midst of a lemon time the last thing I want to do is squeeze a bunch of lemons and figure out how much sugar to add! I know, I know it is a metaphor but when I am in the middle of lemons sometimes it’s hard to see beyond where you are and even figure out how to make lemonade.
These past few weeks have been to say the least…a lemon grove.
It started with me getting the flu which wiped me out for several days and added a layer of fatigue that I just did not need packing up the office and moving that very next week. Then Cox really messed up – well everything. They didn’t put in the order correctly so when they came out to activate the fiber at the new location they couldn’t. So, they activated a co-ax internet which never worked and oh by the way disconnected my old office (which we were still using). We requested service to be back up in our old office but they didn’t get around to it for an entire day and a half and when they did we could only call out and people couldn’t call in. They messed up our caller ID and added an annoying call waiting feature that interrupted every phone call we had. Then they were supposed to activate our phones at the new location on Wednesday and turn off at the old location but they never showed up only to discover they had cancelled our work order because the order was placed by them incorrectly. They never called to reschedule it. 7 phone calls later I finally reached someone who agreed to send out a technician to try to get our non-working internet going and we were going to have to wait on our phones. When the phones did get activated, our phone guy (a totally different system) installed our phones but oh by the way, forgot to activate three of our main phone jacks so had to come back the next day. Our printers won’t print from a laptop (they could before), our scanner quit on one of our computers and we don’t know why, one of our computers had some type of Microsoft update that crashed the network card so now it won’t work. Tried to hang some pictures and the nails weren’t going in because turns out some of our walls are metal? Who knew there was such a thing! Our thermostats were replaced with smart thermostats but they aren’t working because they need a control wire that was never activated so it was 50 degrees in our office until I manually charged them while waiting on the heat and air guys to come back to fix. The company I hired to help with ice/snow didn’t show up. Our electronic medical records crashed while trying to work from home on the ice days. And yes, believe it or not there was more….
Deep breath…. Believe me, when all this was going on I wasn’t thinking about making lemonade, I was thinking Yakamatsu. This is a neologism that a friend had coined literally combining two languages and translating into “you can’t make this $h.. up”.
I know all of you have had times in your life like this. There are obviously different levels of lemons that we experience in our lives. Some life threatening (I have friends going thru some severe issues right now) and others are just annoying like my last few weeks. But, we all need ways to cope.
Here are 6 ways to help you through these times that don’t require making lemonade…. READ ON…
- Focus on ONE good thing that happened. Yes, it will be a small thing. Maybe someone said something nice or a computer actually came on. Just sit with that one thing for as long as you can and breathe into it. One day my one good thing was fixing the stopper for the back of a door!
- Get moving. Exercise releases lots of stress but face it when we are swamped adding exercise can be just another thing on the to do list. Be spontaneous and take a lap around the building. Take a flight or two of stairs. Do some wall pushups or drop to the floor and stretch.
- Turn up the music. Turn on a favorite upbeat song and sing (if you like) at the top of your lungs.
- Call a friend and let them tell you all of their woes (their list might just be bigger than yours).
- Tell yourself…this too shall pass enough times you start to believe it or call a friend and have them tell you!
- Not because any of it is funny but because when every time you turn around something else is piled on your plate, the only place you can land is Yakamatsu. Find a cute youtube or Instagram video that makes you laugh out loud and watch it over and over.
I also have to say it is times like these that you have to lean into your faith and just know that no matter what there is a higher power on your side even if you don’t understand what is happening. Sometimes that’s all we have… and that is enough.
If you are going thru a “lemon” time, know you are not alone, this too shall pass and I am lifting you up in thoughts and prayers.
To your health,
Laura
