When Life Throws You Lemons....Make Cranberry Juice by Shari Bookstaff

 

NOTE:  This tour post was supposed to be posted last Thursday...For some reason Blogger has been giving me grief about this post.  Which has been making me cranky all weekend. :( Synopsis: When my kids were learning to walk, I remember walking behind them, ready to catch them if they stumbled backward. I never dreamed that thirteen years later my kids would be walking behind me, ready to catch me if I stumble backward. I was 42 years old when I was diagnosed with a benign, operable brain tumor in July 2006. Doctors predicted a short hospital stay followed by a speedy recovery. Complications arose, giving me lifelong obstacles that I never could have prepared for. A divorced mother of two beautiful, talented, wonderful children, I had high hopes for a bright and happy future. I tried online dating, which got me a few cups of coffee, but no real dates. A couple of dating disasters later, my dating karma was beginning to change when my brain tumor was diagnosed. My life since that fateful day has been focused on regaining basic human functions: breathing, swallowing, walking, etc. I am working again, and trying to be a good mother to my two beautiful, talented, wonderful children. Putting a positive spin on life’s disasters doesn’t always work, but looking for, and accepting, positive things in spite of life’s disasters works. Instead of making lemonade out of lemons, I add life’s sweet sugar and cranberries to my lemons. This makes life much more palatable. Review: What I really liked about this book was how open and honest the author was.  This could NOT have been a very easy time in her families lives and she was, in my opinion, an open book.  The good, the bad and the ugly make it into this book as well as a score of other emotions.   I really liked the concept that Shari shares with the readers - that you really can't always put a positive spin on some disasters.  Sometimes you need to take those lemons (sour) and find the sweetness (cranberries) in them throw a little extra sugar on them in the hopes that it makes the bumpy road your on a teeny bit more "enjoyable," or really sweet lemonade.  In Shari's case the lemon was a majorly traumatic brain injury following surgery on a benign brain tumor.  An injury that had Shari pretty much relearning everything that she's been able to do up to that point in her 42 years on this Earth.  There were a LOT of baby steps ahead for Shari (sorry for the What About Bob?! reference) and she found all the cranberries....That had to of been some pretty SWEET lemonade?! RATING: 4/5