“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
According to Google, this proverb is attributed to writer Elbert Hubbard in 1910, who wrote, “He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate passes out to him and uses them to start a lemonade stand.”
If you’ve reached middle age, you’ve probably had a sh*t year at some point. 2024 was that year for me. One thing after another happened, each one rocking me further off my boat. Looking back, 2024 felt like the culmination of a series of events that had started with the pandemic. At the time, I saw them as a string of unfortunate circumstances. Now, I see them differently: perhaps life was trying to tell me that a lot of change was needed.
I’m no psychologist or expert on life, but I’ve learned something that I wish I had understood much earlier: nothing lasts forever. The good times pass, but so do the bad ones.
When I was younger, I had a tendency to imagine the worst-case scenario—and then imagine it lasting forever. Even worse, I sometimes made decisions based on that fear. Now I know better. Or at least, I’m trying to.
It’s easy to say this once the worst part is behind you. Living through it is another story. When you’re in the middle of a difficult period, sometimes all you have is the belief—or the desperate need to believe—that something good will eventually come from it. Maybe you won’t get exactly what you wanted, but somehow, you’ll come out of it better than you went in.
That’s when the phrase “Lemonade was too easy, so I made Tarte au Citron” came to me.
I refused to believe that all I could do with the lemons life had handed me was make lemonade. Surely, something more complex, more beautiful, and hopefully more delicious could come from all of these difficult experiences and life lessons.
Tarte au citron fits that description perfectly.
It’s elaborate and technical, but also beautiful and incredibly delicious. There’s the perfectly baked, evenly shaped pâte sucrée; a smooth, tart-but-sweet lemon curd; and a luscious white meringue, torched until perfectly golden. Each component requires practice, patience, and skill to get right. And when they all come together, the result is something to be proud of.
So that’s what I’m doing now: trying to make a tarte au citron out of my life.
I’m still squeezing the lemons to make the lemon curd, and I have no idea exactly how the final tart will turn out. But I have to believe that if I keep going, keep learning, and keep putting the pieces together, that first bite will be the most delicious one ever.
