The Sweetest Lemons

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

In this life, the terrain is continually changing, we will climb mountains, skip through lush fields of wildflowers, traverse into deep valleys, and try to navigate our way through dry desert sand. Each with its own beauty and hardship. As difficult as these paths can be at times, we need to make sure we aren’t trying to go it alone. We should take our own advice, you know what you tell your kids when they head out the door on an adventure, “don’t go anywhere alone, remember to use the buddy system”.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes we need a little time out, some solitude, to do a little self reflection, see where we should be showing ourselves some grace. Most of the time, though, we need a hand to hold on to, someone to come alongside and remind you that you do have the grit to climb that mountain in front of you.

The climb may be hard but the best views come from the summit.

Other moments we cant contain our joy and need to share our jubilation with others. Now these moments aren’t necessarily gigantic moments. Sometimes it is a small mom victory, or maybe a finished project, heck, I recently had a mom moment that made my heart explode just like a volcano erupting. My family has recently embarked on the adventure of Sprint Car Racing. I say my family because we all have a role, my husband is the Team Manager, my oldest son is the Crew Chief, my youngest son is the Driver, and me…I’m the Mom, and that title trumps all the others. So back to my recent mom moment, after a session on the track, walking back to our pit stall, I see my driver still in the car while the crew chief is kneeling down beside him. I have no idea what they were talking about, but in that moment my mom heart erupted like a volcano and let me tell you the tears flowed. I stopped and took it in, and in true fashion of the times we all live in, captured it with my phone. Then, needing to share this moment with someone who would get the significance of it, I mean really get it, I uploaded the captured moment to my community, my squad, my ladies, my tribe aka my Lemons.

These are the ladies I couldn’t imagine doing this life without. They know just about every side of me, the side that cleans up real nice and can dance a mean jig. Actually I really don’t know what a jig is, but I like to dance so it sounded good. The me with no makeup, messy hair, sweats and a t shirt, wearing my flip flops, while we discuss the latest book we have read. We have supported each other through difficulties in marriage, sickness and at times the deaths of our parents, taking on children that are not our own, school projects, graduations, sending our kids off to college, and now weddings.

My Lemons were also there while I lay on the hospital bed with my son, who at this point has no diagnosis as to why on a scale of 1-10 the pain in his head is a 12, he cant keep any food down, has a fever of 105, and cant tolerate any noise or light. They prayed with me, and sat with me in the silence when I was worried and scared beyond words. They also rejoiced with me when we got to bring him home, on the mend.

We all need these women, these relationships, to remind us to give ourselves a little grace when we mess up, or help us to remember the we have the grit to keep moving, even when moving seems impossible. So cheers to our squads, our Lemons and to having the grit & grace to share the mountain top moments, the valleys, and all the terrain in between.