When Life Gives You Lemons

One man’s trash is a grouch’s treasure.

—Socrates

Be the grouch you wish to see in the world.

—Sesame Street/Oscar the Grouch

I’m not grouchy although I do suffer from anxiety and depression. I take medication for depression and years ago, I took medication for anxiety. The med for anxiety is habit forming and I didn’t want to have the habit. Now, with anxiety, I deep breath in through my nose and out through my nose saying the mantra let go and let god as I do this. My therapist says that’s all I need to do and the anxiety will leave. I’m not certain about this and having a habit like that is boring. I get tired of the repetition.

Unlike Oscar the Grouch, I don’t want to annoy people. And I don’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed even if my cats wake me. I eat well, and exercise, and get a lot of sleep; it makes me feel better.

The Grouch says a stranger is just a friend I don’t want to make. I love talking to strangers especially as I work in the library. I compliment the woman with the dreds, the woman with the blue hair, and the woman with a shaved head. I talk to the toddlers and let mom or dad know their toddler is the cutest. Occasionally, the toddler will wave hi to me and bye when they’re leaving.

At the library, I still miss the puppets, and wooden blocks, and tracks for trains. All the kid’s toys disappeared with Covid and have never been replaced. One of my favorite things was watching the kids play together. There were no strangers, just kids enjoying time with each other.

When life gives you lemons, put them in the blender with rotten tomatoes, dirty socks, and old cardboard. You probably won’t even taste the lemons. I passed on making this concoction. I didn’t need to know whether it was true or not.

For me, the worst part of feeling down is knowing it can’t last. That is what the Grouch thinks. He says bad moods are temporary and grouchiness is forever. That’s why he prefers grouchiness.

I won’t claim bad moods or grouchiness. My roommate says she has never, in nine years of knowing me, seen me in a bad mood or grouchy. She thinks it is because of the meds I take. Although she says worry is different, I think worry might be a disguise for grouchiness. If that’s true, I am grouchy daily. Sometimes the worry doesn’t last long, maybe five minutes. Other times it eeks its way into an hour. I get rid of it by telling a friend what I’m worried about and them letting me know it will never happen. I trust my friends. And if it does happen, like I get Covid, it is meant to happen. I’ll learn something from it. The learning might come weeks later, but I do learn.

Everything in italics was written by Oscar the Grouch in his book called The Pursuit of Grouchiness. The book’s copyright is by Sesame Workshop.