How does the old saying go? "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It's kind of hard to taste the lemonade while you're holding a bag of lemons though. Say you take your lemons, wash them, cut them, squeeze them and add sugar and water to sweeten the lemon juice. After all of the labor, you have lemonade.

The same goes for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You may have a terrible experience or a painful trial, but once you're through it, you see all the benefits
that came from it. You may not see them right away, but if you wait and try, you can see them. Those benefits are nuggets of gold that fill the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Instead of it being a traditional rainbow that brings you the gold, the rainbow may be upside down, or a tough time, but you still get a pot of gold. In fact, if you look closely enough, the upside down rainbow is actually a smile!

I know we've all been through challenging times in life and there are more to come for sure as challenges are a natural part of life. In order to get the most out of the experience and often long after it has passed, you should write down the good things that came out of it.

I've learned what love is and what I really want as a result of surviving challenges. I've also learned that I can persevere and still have hope and desire to succeed in my heart. I've learned to love and respect myself, and I've finally started to realize and accept the things that I cannot control. Yes, I confess I'm a recovering control freak. I'm certain if I can find gold at the end of my upside down rainbow, you can to. Take time to acknowledge the positive things that came out of your trials because you can!