When Life Throws You Lemons . . .

Have you ever noticed that for every good thing that happens in life there always seems to be some bad mixed in? Negative energy has this bad habit of hanging over my head like a dark cloud. Around here, we jokingly call it Murphy’s Law—Whatever can go wrong will! Over the years, I’ve come to expect my electrically charged nightmare to be right around the corner, but lately I’ve been asking myself, Why?

I know bad things happen to good people, and I like to think of myself as good people so this is just expected right? I can live with that, but what really has me scratching my head in question is why do I live my life waiting for the other shoe to drop on my head? Is it a genetic makeup that has me questioning every positive thing that happens and standing back from the celebration looking for that dark cloud that has to be around the corner, just waiting to show itself?

Over the last two years, I’ve really been trying to hold onto the positive things and ignore that tingling of negative energy hiding in the shadows. But it’s not easy. I’ve tried to stop looking at the glass as half-empty—after all, if there’s still tequila in the glass, life can’t be all bad, right? This works for awhile, but those old feelings kick in and soon I’m wondering if that’s really Patron, or did someone replace it with dirty water? I’ve discovered I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to negative energy. I have a latent masochistic gene or something that refuses to accept the good things in life—and they far out way the bad things that tend to creep up in life. I know life isn’t always a bed of roses or rainbows and sunny skies. I know to enjoy the rainbows in life I have to endure a little rain. But what I don’t understand is why do some of us—okay, I’m generalizing here because I can’t be the only one who does this!—revert to self-sabotage when nothing bad happens on its own. You know what I’m talking about. You want to lose weight and have made it halfway to your goal, then just as the jeans are starting to fit again you go back to bad habits and seek out your old friend Cheetos? Or the writing is going great and you take a week off making the getting back into the routine a struggle. Or you get up in a rotten mood just because your dreams have all been pleasant this week.

So how do you break the habit? How do you latch onto the good energy and ignore the bad—even though you can feel it lurking in the shadows?

. . . Make Lemon Shooters!


Stop rolling your eyes. I know this might not be the best way to kick Murphy’s butt, but come on, can you really be upset and angry and depressed when there’s a party going on? Nope, so slide up on a barstool, have a couple shots and share your ways to deal with negative energy and find the positives in life when the dark cloud’s parked its ugly self over your head.

Sable Grace