Sometimes the best antidote to a terrible day is doing something nice for someone else. I have been at a conference all week, and even though it is relevant to the work I do, there are a million places I’d rather be than stuck in a chair listening to someone talk for eight solid hours. My to-do list is a million miles long and I could feel a migraine kicking up about halfway through the day today.
The drive home from where the conference is being held should be about 20 minutes. It took about 45 minutes today because of construction, and I heard reports on the radio that the opposite side of the metro area was getting downpours that were moving my direction. I was relieved finally to get off the highway, drive through the neighborhood and turn down my block. I was in a relatively foul mood, if you haven’t guessed that already from my incessant complaining.
And then I saw it: the lemonade stand.
Two girls had a folding table set up on the grass near the curb. Lemonade was $.25 a cup. I fumbled around my glove box for money and found a single and a five. They probably hadn’t noticed, but dark rain clouds seemed to be speeding toward our neighborhood. Probably not a great day for a lemonade stand. The gal brought me my cup and said I was the stand’s third customer, and that they had been at it for a couple hours. I handed the girl the five dollar bill and told her to keep the change. Her enormous smile was well worth the money, since it made me forget about the to-do list that can (mostly) wait and made me realize that in the grand scheme of things, I have very little to complain about.
Want to perk up someone else’s day? Make these Summer Celebration Lemonade Biscotti.