I have a friend on FB that I’m 99.9% sure he’s not on your friend’s list. I’m sharing this because I love it, and want you to read it too.
Here’s where it starts…
Every few years I post this story again. It happened in 2012, when our daughter, Jess, was 10 years old. I love the lesson that I learned from their experience.
11:30.
Sunday afternoon my 10 year old daughter, Jessica, asked me if she and her best friend, Emma, could set up a lemonade stand in our yard. It was a very drizzly, wet, cool day. But I thought a lesson could be learned about disappointment and realistic expectations, so I said “Sure.” They painted a sign (50 Cents a Cup – All Proceeds to Benefit Animal Shelter”) made the lemonade, set up their table in the yard, and stood in the drizzle. I sighed the sigh that a wise parent sighs as his child is about to face disappointment.
Finally, a lone, soggy jogger stopped. Then a car. Then neighbors started coming over. THEN the Grey Line Tour bus comes to a screeching halt right in front of our house. (I‘m in Nashville. A music star lives in my neighborhood. Not unusual.) The tour bus driver opened his door, ordered a cup of lemonade, then invited the girls to bring their pitcher onto the bus and almost every passenger bought a cup.
After two hours the girls had made almost $60 for the animal shelter.
A valuable lesson was learned. Not by them. By me. The lesson was that sometimes, even when everything seems stacked against you, you just go. It’s just your time. Because you make it your time.
Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live once said, “We don’t start the show because we’re ready. We start the show because it’s 11:30.“
For Jessica and Emma, it was 11:30.
Look at your watch.
What time is it?