Honey on Thorns

Goodreads recently presented me with this “quote of the day”:

My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn. (Louis Adamic)

Wow. Can I relate to that!

Book #3 is well underway, though being away from it so much of the time has been a challenge. On the other hand, it has given me the perspective of distance. I can go back and read it much more objectively than I could have a few months ago, so that gives me an edge for editing.  This honey is on the thorn of little available time.

There have also been some recent life changes—people important to me who have left this realm of existence. Death is always bittersweet. While I am certain of the kingdoms to which they have gone and that they are absolutely joyous in those places, I am also watching the effects their passing has on the people who love them. My personal belief is in an amazing afterlife, so I don’t fear death; but the fact is that the prolonged absence of loved ones is difficult to deal with, whether the loved one has moved far away or has stepped through the veil of this existence into the next. It helps me to focus on the fact that this passage is one we will all make one day, and that the reception committee on the other side will be glorious! Still, it’s honey on a thorn.

There are a lot more thorns in life. If we try, we can find a little honey on most of them. The trick is to keep our eyes wide open so that we know the danger, then carefully approach the experience of licking the honey so that as little harm is inflicted as possible. On the other hand, some thorns approach outside our lines of vision and strike hard, wounding deeply. The sweetness of those experiences can be hard to imagine, but if we study them hard enough, we can find something. Often that “something” is the personal growth we can experience if we (as the old expression goes) take those lemons and make lemonade.

The sweet things in life are always tempered with the bitter. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t understand how sweet the sweet things are, because we would have nothing to compare them to! And if we’re really paying attention, sometimes we can see the honey dripping off the thorns, so we can avoid most of the nastiness and maximize the goodness.