The Answer Lies in Creation: When Life Gives You Lemons…

We are all familiar with the age-old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
And let’s be honest, most of us are a little tired of hearing it.

Still, the idea of life handing us lemons is something I have spent many hours consciously and unconsciously thinking about. It's not really a question of if, but when. Because no matter how polished someone else’s life may appear, everyone eventually gets dealt a few sour, bitter hands.

The easiest response? Take the lemon and squirt it in someone else’s eyes.

There is a strangely primal urge in us to blame others for our pain. Sometimes it’s not even about blame, but about wanting someone to share the burden. Lemons. And while our loved ones may step up to help carry that weight, we often cling to the bitterness of our lived experiences. In some ways, pain becomes an identity. It can feel like the one thing that sets us apart.

On the other hand, choosing to heal, to create beauty from our struggles, opens the door to comparison. The moment we begin to transform pain into growth, we enter a world where we might measure ourselves against others. Social media is overflowing with carefully curated triumphs. And while those stories might be worth celebrating, they can feel hollow when you're stuck in your own darkness.

When there is no light at the end of your tunnel, someone else’s glow can feel like another language entirely.

It reminds me of the way Anna Karenina opens:
“All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
There is something deeply personal about pain. It isolates. It makes you believe that no one else could possibly understand the particular shape of your suffering.

But here is what I have come to believe: the answer is to create.

In a time when artificial intelligence is becoming more involved in creative fields, human imagination can feel undervalued. We all need to survive, to pay the bills, and most industries are quicker to choose efficiency over artistry. Why hire a person when a machine can generate something “good enough” for free?

To me, that loss is tragic.

Creativity is one of the few distinctly human qualities that truly sets us apart. Our ability to imagine and build something beautiful from nothing is an act of meaning. It is, I believe, the thing that most aligns us with our Creator. It is through the act of creating that we begin to experience inner harmony.

So, when life gives you lemons, make… anything.

Make lemonade if your anger needs quenching.
Make lemon meringue if the bitterness feels overwhelming and you need to inject sweetness into your life.
Make hot lemon water if you need help digesting what happened to you.
Make a lemon-honey-ginger tonic if you are in need of healing.

The metaphors are endless. But at the heart of it is one question: what will you do with what life has handed you? Will you lash out and make others feel your pain? Will you ignore it and end up hoarding a basket full of rotting fruit?

Or will you face your lemons, acknowledge them, and choose to create something meaningful?

My suggestion is to physically create. Choose the one act that mirrors the act of your Creator. It might be painting, cooking, gardening, singing, sculpting, dancing, or writing. The medium does not matter. What matters is that you begin.

You may be surprised by what you discover about yourself and your life in the process.

As for me, through my own journey with pain, I developed what I can only describe as a soft obsession with lemons. Over time, they became a symbol of something more. A brighter life. A better version of myself waiting patiently to be made.