Bitter Sweet
It is said that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. Embrace positivity and turn your misfortune into a beneficial and perhaps even enjoyable experience.
I thought I'd come up with something similar within the constraints of my greenhouse recently. Somebody earlier in the year suggested that I grow cucamelons. I confess that I found the prospect of growing a cross between a melon and a cucumber rather exciting, duly sowed the seeds and nurtured the seedlings that followed. There was no hint on the seed packet as to how large the fruit grew and I think, understandably, I was expecting something perhaps mango sized.
When the plants became overcome by tiny fruit, at best 2 centimetres in length, I reached out to colleagues in the village gardening club for guidance. The consensus was that this was the limit of their size and that they go well as an addition to cocktails as well as being eaten as a sweet canapé.
Reader, to my mind, they can best be described as an acquired taste. The thick skin of a melon stuffed with cucumber type seeds in a tiny bitter bundle is not my idea of flavoursome. However, conscious of lemons and lemonade and drawing on the advice about casting them into alcoholic concoctions, I endeavoured to turn this minor set-back into an achievement. When life gives you cucamelons, throw them in gin!.
It didn't work. Nobody I offered one to, was impressed. Retirement may have fostered in me an attitude of hope and optimism but presumably there are occasions when even the most inspired idealist has to admit defeat. Either that or I retreated to historical despondency and cynicism from pre-retirement practice. When life gives you cucamelons, throw them in the bin!
It emphasised that lesson I learnt on letting go. If you cannot enjoy something then, and without necessarily wanting life to be completely hedonistic, recognise that we have choices on how to make it fulfilling. After all life really is too short to start chewing on cucamelons.
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