Making Lemonade

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If God gives you lemons...then make some lemonade.

I've always hated that saying. It sounds like it should be coming from the mouth of your grandmother, in a sing-song voice. Yet I woke up thinking about it today because one of my greatest friends told me that my blog has been bringing him down. He reads it to laugh and be comfortable.

As a writer, I've always felt a certain responsibility to entertain, but I haven't been feeling like much of an entertainer.

Life is lie a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

Good old Tom Hanks. Great movie, and a pretty profound thought, huh?

The more you think about some of those sayings, the more they ring true, right?

I've spent a lot of my adult life watching and waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's dropped on me a few times, but you know what, I'm still positive. That's right! The all-time negative thinker is positive.

What I know for sure:

The Yanks will win the World Series again before the Bills or Sabres win their league championships.

The family surrounding me will never let me down. From Kathy to the kids through my brothers, sisters and in-laws, I'm surrounded by love. What a gift.

A good friend can make you smile through the pain. I've laughed as hard as I possibly could have laughed in the last few weeks. My brothers are responsible for a lot of that, but friend after friend has come through too.

I still believe. When you live your life with a certain balance and a lot of faith, you can tackle all sorts of horrible news. I believe my brother and I will watch the Yanks together again and stand shoulder-to-shoulder at a Bruce concert.

My favorite literary line of all-time is when Tom Joad's mother tells his father that they are going to go on after Tom has to leave the family. The reason I adore the line is because she is not abandoning her faith. She's a woman made of substance with a solid straight line to God. It is what we all aspire to do, but it becomes difficult at times. There are moments when we feel as if we are just a bag being lifted in the breeze.

Stand with me - today I'm still against the wind, but I'm standing my ground. I'm making lemonade. One task at a time, one moment at a time. I'm grabbing the chocolate with the caramel in the middle.

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