Queen Bey had a different reason for talking about it. And…it was brilliant. I want to talk about my own experience with lemonade this week. We were supposed to vacation in Asheville with some friends from Sat-Tue. They came to a house in the Smoky Mountains and we headed to the airport to go home. As good friends would do, and inspire, the conversation on Sat-Tue was often enough about our extending our stay.
A non-starter for all the right but responsible/boring reasons (notably. work). Then we got our lemons. We sat at the airport for hours watching our plane get delayed. The ticket counter was urging us to change our flight because though United wasn’t giving us truth, their on the ground staff was telling us this wasn’t going to be good for us. They were right. United sent us an email telling us our flight was bumped out two days to Thursday night which basically…meant we would come back on a dead and unproductive Friday before a holiday weekend. So then we made lemonade.
We got out our surfboards and rode the wave that was coming at us. We pushed the flight to Saturday. And we headed to this house in the Smokys with friends…with some of the people I’ve known best basically since birth. We had to figure it out.
Priya had to work.
I had to work.
And we had two kids who needed love and attention. That’s the lemonade. Friends stepping up to help Priya while I worked all day Wed. No small thing in the mountains. Helping load and unload cars. Literally carrying my (c)hunkster son 3+ miles on a hike while I banged away on a keyboard. Kids playing with my kids and making them smile and laugh.
https://web.facebook.com/1314738/videos/pcb.10102065918519534/10102065918090394
Occupying them as peers but almost as babysitters. I have been blessed left right and center in so many ways. But this past week, #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for finding my way into the good graces of some truly extraordinarily kind, funny, smart (and freaking accomplished) friends. After 16 hours of travel delays in August alone, I can say every second was worth it for culminating in this.
The most emblematic photo of the past week is Shashank Sheth carrying Jaan one way on a hike; Mital Sheth did the other way. Tina Dave’ Sodha and Samir Sodha made sure Priya’s car was always loaded and unloaded and that she was following the caravan to the appropriate next destination.
Soniya Babu ShethAmish Barot and Deepa Shah Barot captured Jaan’s love and affection in ways we haven’t seen him do outside of fam. Hina Patel Sheth made sure the kitchen was always humming, and along with everyone in the house, helped moderate the dynamics between three spunky 3-5 year olds who ended up performing How Far I’ll Go for us to kick off a talent show.
Priya KC Bhatt, Anaiya, Jaan and I couldn’t be luckier. Our friends get more props den stunts den Bruce Willis.
Suneet Bhatt 