When life gives you tangerines

An infamous saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It means making the best out of a bad situation. Lemons symbolize hardships, lemonade for resilience. But what if life gives tangerines? What do we do?

When life gives you tangerines, it doesn’t always mean it will be sour and heavy. Unlike lemons, which are pale in color, tangerines have a vivid one. Some burst with sweetness, some make you wince, but even the sourest ones eventually ripen, becoming sweet in time. Just like in life.

Life throws both hurdles and unexpected bliss your way. However, it is not just a cycle of hardship and relief, suffering and triumph.

There is a hidden grace — not after, but during. The heaviest rains do not fall in vain; they heal the dry land before giving way to rainbows. The deepest falls do not break you entirely; they offer a view of the world in a new perspective before letting us have the highest rise. Melancholic autumns do not only shed; they give long nights for rest and golden colors for warmth before they clear the way for blooming spring. Not every hurdle is merely pain — there are glees and wonders mixed in, just as a tangerine is never purely sour.

The tree that bears tangerines does not taste its own sweetness, yet it gives anyway.

When life gives you tangerines, may it be sweet or sour, don’t keep them all to yourself. Unlike lemons, tangerines are rarely consumed alone. They are peeled open, passed from hand to hand, their segments made to be shared. Sweetness tastes better when shared, and sourness feels lighter when bore together.

When life gives you tangerines, the weight may surprise you. There will be days when the fruit feels too many, too much, too heavy. But there are arms that reach out, willing to hold them with you, or offer baskets to fit the tangerines, or a wagon to help carry them all. There are backs that bend beside yours, fingers that help peel what you cannot.

When life gives you tangerines, and you’ve eaten the last piece, let the sweetness linger. Don’t mourn what’s gone — breathe in what remains. The scent on your skin, the softness in your chest, the memory of something once whole. Sweetness returns. Not always how or when we expect it — but it comes. In a laugh, in a touch, in another tangerine left on your doorstep by someone who remembered you once shared yours.

When life gives you tangerines, be kind, love deep, live well.

Still, we give. Still, we love.

A heart softened by generosity finds doors opening where walls once stood. A soul that loves deeply finds echoes of that love in the most unexpected places.