Lemonade

I have a friend/lover who never does what he says. He cannot seem to manage time, meet obligations or even communicate about his inability to do this. He is the king of the text and hide. I am forever doing the insane thing and expecting different behavior...but not tonight. I am sure his intentions are to do what he has promised, but life intervenes and he is caught flatfooted and his close friends pay the price. He usually emerges in about a week with some series of excuses and a puppy dog expression.

I am trying not to be mean, just honest. This is how it is with him. This will never change and he has to move to the second tier of the social circle if he doesn't spin out of orbit on his own.

Tonight after breaking the second "date" in a week, I went about my evening and took up another friend on her invitation to hear a concert. If anyone has the opportunity to hear Trombone Shorty please do it, he was amazing tonight. Hours of terrific jazz and funk by some talented musicians who did show up where they were supposed to be. What a blessing.

I am telling my sponsee's that they cant drink and they have to do what they say they are going to do and to be where they say they are going to be. Not original, I just read it in a blog earlier this year and have been told it over and over again. Integrity makes you whole. It keeps you out of the mud pit and able to look at others with some compassion. Your insides match your outsides and you gain credibility. I haven't always had that. I am realizing what chaos I lived in when I wasn't doing what I promised and making excuses, blaming my failures on others etc. Thank God I don't live there anymore. I do admit I like to visit sometimes.

I was disappointed about the "date", but I am also aware that the experience I was able to have was so far beyond my expectation for the evening that I was lucky my plans didn't go my way. So the other half of the lesson for me was that things do happen for a reason and God had a much better evening planned for me. When I put aside my disappointment, something was able to replace and reshape my experience of the evening. Also an ah-ha moment for me.

So the cliche is that if life gives you lemons make lemonade. I am squeezing...