Get the feedLemonade
Monday, Jun 29th 2009
When my husband John walked into our local video store a couple of months ago, he was disappointed to see it was closing its doors.
Upon hearing the news, my first thought was, “That’s really too bad. Now where are we going to get our movies?”
John’s was, “Let’s get together with others and save it…as a service to our community!”
And so, just two months later, our video store, SixSeeds Video, is open for business.
Yesterday at dinner, we sat around discussing the phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I was trying to explain it to my six year-old.
“You know when you get something sour or hard in your life, but you turn it around and make it into something good and sweet….” As I was teaching him, I realized John (though he rarely steps foot in the kitchen) is awesome at making lemonade.
Sometimes, a lemon continues to be a lemon and a closing video store actually shuts down. But isn’t it intriguing to think about how much choice we have in the matter? I know not everyone who wants to can go and save a store, but what I’m talking about are all the little things in life - the choices we have each day to reach out to life, look at it creatively and maybe even go out on a limb.
Maybe it’s complimenting the surly store clerk, or making mud pies in the rain with your kids when it rains in New England fourteen out of the last twenty-four days. Maybe it’s creating a community newsletter, like our good friend Nancy French has done, and delivering it door to door, just to get to know the neighbors.
What would we be teaching our kids each day if we embraced all of life, including the hardships, with the same energy we embraced the good stuff?
It takes creativity and energy.
But if we could set that example for our children - life would be much more sweet.
Upon hearing the news, my first thought was, “That’s really too bad. Now where are we going to get our movies?”
John’s was, “Let’s get together with others and save it…as a service to our community!”
And so, just two months later, our video store, SixSeeds Video, is open for business.
Yesterday at dinner, we sat around discussing the phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I was trying to explain it to my six year-old.
“You know when you get something sour or hard in your life, but you turn it around and make it into something good and sweet….” As I was teaching him, I realized John (though he rarely steps foot in the kitchen) is awesome at making lemonade.
Sometimes, a lemon continues to be a lemon and a closing video store actually shuts down. But isn’t it intriguing to think about how much choice we have in the matter? I know not everyone who wants to can go and save a store, but what I’m talking about are all the little things in life - the choices we have each day to reach out to life, look at it creatively and maybe even go out on a limb.
Maybe it’s complimenting the surly store clerk, or making mud pies in the rain with your kids when it rains in New England fourteen out of the last twenty-four days. Maybe it’s creating a community newsletter, like our good friend Nancy French has done, and delivering it door to door, just to get to know the neighbors.
What would we be teaching our kids each day if we embraced all of life, including the hardships, with the same energy we embraced the good stuff?
It takes creativity and energy.
But if we could set that example for our children - life would be much more sweet.
Jean Yih Kingston
Jean Kingston, who co-founded SixSeeds, spends many of her waking hours in her SUV hauling carloads of children to various and sundry playing fields across the state of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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