Seeing the hardwoods under the rug

The old, and worn out, adage is:

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

Or it's more bitter partner:

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it the bastards who gave you the damn lemons in the first place.

But the other day, after meeting with someone I used to work with many years ago, I began to look at it a little differently. We had a brief conversation about the chances that unexpected change can bring to you, if you let it. We also talked about how sometimes life is so screwed up, so far from where we started or were a few moments ago, that it's a chance to reinvent yourself.

As I drove home I began to think of the tired old lemon analogy and this is what came to mind instead:

When life pulls the rug out from under you, you may find more beautiful hardwoods underneath.

When you're done crying about it or taking a break from crying, look at what's uncovered under your feet. Because of the rug that used to be there, you may never have seen what was under it. You may never have bothered to really look. The rug was comfortable, it hid maybe some dented or unfinished hardwood floors. Perhaps it hid some unfinished potential? I began to look on the drive home at that floor in my mind. I began to wonder, will I replace the rug with one just like it, will I get a new rug and make it home, or will I take the hardwood floors and shine them up to stand all on their own?

I don't know yet how it will all work out. But I do realize I've reached the point where I can see the rug for all the merits it once was, and I miss it, but I also realize there's a world under that rug and free choice has a lot to do with how we all handle the tough changes of life.

In the coming months I'll figure it out, but in a strange way I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of the floor and how I decide, how I choose with my own free will, to make it my foundation again. Someone else may have pulled the rug out from under me and left me wondering WTF, but I"m the only one who has the power to choose the next step.

Screw the lemons, I think we've all got hardwood floors that if we want to, we can do something better with. Life altering change WILL alter your life, but maybe the rug was holding you back and it's only after you're ass end over tea kettle that you can see what was under the rug.

Maybe the hardwoods under the rug will glow warmer, deeper and richer, now that the rug hiding it is gone. I don't know what is on the other side of this change, I don't know where I'm going and it's all the more hard because this isn't like some of the other change this year, I didn't choose it.

But what I choose to do with it will make all the difference.

here's to the asses who pulled the rug out from under me and may have given me the gift of fresh breath into my stale life. Then again, I might have to buy some lemons and serve them 'flavored lemonade'...!