Making Lemonade

It isn’t always easy to make lemonade

“We’re getting a divorce,” the voice came quietly over the phone.  Unspoken were the quiet tears I knew were being shed.  Despair, anguish, unmitigated pain howled underneath the silence.  I could feel it in my gut.  Palpable. 

I remember all those years ago when I learned of my friend’s impending divorce. How in my mind I pictured a shattered crystal drop, the iridescent shards scattered, sharp-edged, cutting.  Glinting in sunlight.  How could there still be sunlight?

I remember I said the appropriate things.  I offered reassurance, tried to keep things positive.  But oh, it was a hard.  Eventually my friend came through that awful episode and has built a new and even better life.  It knew it would happen that way, just as I knew there was no avoiding the pain of the transition.

Recently, I’ve learned of another divorce, and once again am reminded of that crystal drop.  How can one make lemonade from a shattered crystal drop?  I admit it’s hard.  But it can be done!

 “Love turns a heart to crystal...Much more valuable, but much more fragile.” 

~  Neal Shusterman

Photo by Hank Kellner

Devastation

There it is

The other shoe has dropped

An elevator plunge

Landing with the force of a nuclear explosion

Divorce!

Abrupt

Final

Like an unexpected death

The end of your life as you know it

Dissolution of a dream

A precious crystal shattered

The breaking of a promise

Moans among the ashes

Children crying out in pain

No one escapes the devastation

Not even the owner of the shoe

Who flies away not noticing

Her own heart is missing

               ~ Elizabeth Guy

When have you had to make lemonade?

Leave a comment and share your "recipe." 

Coming next week - one woman's recipe

See other photo/poem combinations in my new book Reflect and Write, co-authored by Hank Kellner, and published by Prufrock Press www.prufrock/reflect-and-write-p1752.aspx 

Also, visit my co-author's blogs at hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com
and  http://writingandphotos.edublogs.org