An Ode to Lemonade Makers 

This is for all of you who are Lemonade Makers, Reframe Artists, Bad*ss Tetris Masters of Life.

It’s an understatement to say the last year has been challenging for most. We have been tested in many ways, and many have responded with upset and anger. Fortunately, there are also quite a few that have risen to the occasion as noble solutionaries… honorable agents of change, willing and ready to take broken pieces and build new structures… brilliant inner children building lemonade stands.   

This is for those of you who have cultivated the emotional, psychological, and strategic muscles to take things that aren’t that great (even downright crappy), and make them amazing. To everyone who has taken the last year of challenges and done some serious magic in transforming challenges to opportunities, this ode is for you. 

I honor you. 

I honor you for the work you have done to show up as your best, 

no matter how ugly the circumstances. 

I see you.

I see how you’ve applied your own special brand of magic to dark matters, 

literally conquering the dark arts in your own, individual world.

I commend you. 

I commend you for your bravery in persevering through 

the vast challenges presented before you. 

I admire you. 

I admire your stamina, your endurance, your je ne sais quoi, 

your guts, your boldness. 

I celebrate you. 

I celebrate who you are—

a shining star in the face of adversity. 

I support you. 

I support your dreams, 

and I dream them with you. 

I see how you rose up. 

When the world around you brought chaos and hardship, 

You rose up like a royal elephant—kind and capable. 

I cherish you. 

I cherish your beautiful heart, 

And its ancient longing for lovingkindness towards all. 

I applaud you. 

I applaud your mental judo

As a reframe artist 

who has turned bits of debris into true art, 

As a master gamer 

who can Tetris the heck out of a crap situation. 

I stand for you. 

I give you a standing ovation 

for continuing to show up as your Authentic Self,

For letting your most noble compass, 

and not your ego, guide the way. 

I praise you. 

I praise you for getting out of your own way; 

I know how hard that can be. 

I thank you. 

Most of all, I thank you for your coeur-age, 

Your strength of heart. 

I bow to you. 

I bow to all the ways you serve the world. 

The world needs you so very much. 

I love you. 

I love you for all that you have been, 

I love you for all that you are, 

I love you for all that you are becoming.