#LifeLemonsPrompt

When life gives you lemons, let them sit listlessly on your sterile kitchen countertop as blatant yellow stains on the otherwise spotless white marble. In the morning, as you amble into the kitchen half-sleepwalking, those lemons, with their way-too-bright-for-6-in-the-morning eyes, will preen smugly and put you to shame. At noon, the daylight streaming through the kitchen window will cast an offensively yellow glare across the shiny white surface of the counter as it hits those little packages of gloomy cheerfulness. And at the end of the day, after you've cleaned the kitchen until there's not a crumb on the floor--washed the dishes, put plastic wrap on the leftovers, and cleaned the inside of the microwave (you were leaving that one off for a while and you're rather proud of yourself for finally getting to it)--those stray warriors on the countertop will stare back at you challengingly as if to say "Oh, you thought that you were done? Just you wait." 

Annoyed, you'll want to throw them away. Or better yet, to smash them into pulp. At the very least, you'll want to chuck them into that bowl of decorative plastic fruit on the kitchen table so that you won't have to look at their ugly, repugnant faces again until they rot. 

But you can't. And you shouldn't. Because when life gives you lemons, don't fall for it. They want you to make lemonade. To take your anger out on them until you've pounded away their smug grins. To go into a fit of rage as you feebly attempt to "make the best of the situation". 

Believe me, their eyes will gleam with satisfaction after you've had your fun. As you realize that "making lemonade" didn't make you feel any better. Instead, it only made you feel hollow and rotten inside, as if you were the one who was pounded to pulp. They'll laugh as you put your knife down resignedly on the cutting board and scrub the sticky lemon juice off of your hands, picking out the stubborn little bits of pulp from under your fingertips. As you toss the gutted lemon carcasses into the trash can and wipe the countertop clean with the soiled linen washcloth. As you leave the kitchen looking wistfully back at the now spotless countertop. 
 
When life gives you lemons, let them be. When they leer at you with their beady-eyed complacency, acknowledge them politely and go about your business. Don't let the lemons make you one of them.