What Were You Thinking?
I hope this post finds you well, deep in the heart of Gemini season, relishing the long sun-lit days and feeling nourished by the gardens that generously produce crisp asparagus, spicy dandelion greens and luscious, sweet strawberries.
Did you know that Gemini stimulates our intellect, is ever ready with her glorious sense of humor, and invites us to consider the questions:
“What do I think?”
“What is the quality of my thoughts?”
On Memorial Day weekend, a parade was scheduled to roll past our house in our small town. My eleven-year-old daughter and her entrepreneurial friends decided a lemonade stand was the way to join the fun, and spent the day before making lemonade and biscuits, preparing ice, and washing rocks (yes, you read that correctly) to sell.
Unfortunately, rain canceled the parade, and the girls were disappointed. Ever hopeful, they rescheduled the lemonade stand debut for the following Sunday.
As the appointed day approached, I tried to gently prepare them for a let-down. Without an event like a parade, our street wouldn’t get much traffic, especially on a Sunday afternoon. Undaunted, they forged ahead, making fresh lemonade, biscuits and ice, and dusting whatever dirt might have accumulated on the rocks during the week.
The day was sunny, and by afternoon, the girls were in high spirits. We set up the table, and again I reminded them that while they might not get much business, they could have fun in the process. Within a few minutes, the first car rolled up. Then a family out walking their dog stopped by. Then a young couple pushing a stroller. Kids, grandparents and neighbors came in cars, by foot and on bikes to buy lemonade. To my great surprise, (but not to the girls’), a significant number of people gave them $20 bills and told them to keep the change. This happened repeatedly. After two hours, all of the biscuits were gone, as was most of the lemonade and about half the rocks. At the eleventh hour, as we were packing up, a woman drove by, got the last cup of lemonade, and left them another $10. In two hours, the girls netted $113. Not only that, we met and chatted with the nicest neighbors, most of whom we had never met before.
I was astounded. And they were more than delighted!
When Gemini asks us to consider the quality of our thoughts, I was a bit ashamed to notice mine were mostly pessimistic. Mine said, “Better not get our hopes up—a lemonade stand on a quiet street on a Sunday afternoon is likely to disappoint.”
Luckily, the girls knew better, and went in with a strong entrepreneurial spirit that didn’t consider the thought of failure. I mean, yes, they were cute, but people were practically THROWING money at them.
How did that happen?
The lesson here is profound. The girls brought nothing but joy to their venture. The way we think, including the QUALITY of our thoughts, contributes more to our reality than most of us realize. While I knew this in theory, the lemonade stand experience taught me first-hand that what happens in our lives is deeply influenced by our expectations, thoughts and the joyfulness or pessimism with which we think about outcomes.
The joke was on me.
Rocks, anyone?
