The Sunny Side

Sometimes it rains and pours and sometimes skies are sunny and blue.  It's just a fact of life!

Now, I happen to prefer the sun and warmth (one reason I choose to live in NorCal), but I have had some of my favorite distance runs during thunderstorms and downpours back in Virginia.  My point as it relates to pursuing our personal best is, I believe we can find a "sunny side" to every situation.

Sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes things impact our lives that are out of our immediate control. Sometimes consequences from previous decisions catch up with us. Sometimes our plans just unravel or fall apart. No matter what the situation, we can choose to make "lemonade out of the lemons.

Yesterday was a big celebration in Cub Scouts and for my 9 year old son and his friends.  It was the annual Blue & Gold Dinner.  The highlight for my son is when we make a cake together and decorate it... then show it off at the event.  I love to see his excitement, pride in his work, and sense of accomplishment.  In preparation this week, our conversations revolved around how we would improve upon our creation last year. Finally the moment came as my son burst through the door after school, "Dad, I'm home! Time to make the cake!  We only have 2 1/2 hours before we need to go!"

Now, a dilemma for parents, and opportunity to be our personal best arises in moments like this.  We are in the middle of something, an important project, work, etc. and our child wants to play, begins asking questions that require your attention, or wants to make THE cake.  Such was the case with me. I was focused on a work project that needed to be completed by the end of the day, so I told my son that he would need to start the cake on his own, and that I would try to hurry and complete my work so that I could come help soon.

Upon explaining, I countered his objections, that "last year I messed it up" and "no one else can help me" with a simple "just follow the recipe and everything will work out."  And, then I returned focus to my project at hand and the hours ticked by.

Finally, I heard a distraught voice that meant I needed to go downstairs and respond. He said, "Dad, It looks horrible. I can't do it!" I arrived on scene to see a little bit of pudding had fallen on the cake holder. (By the way, we can't stand cake frosting or icing)  He was trying to spread the pudding on the first layer and couldn't spread it on the sides with the huge spatula.

I had two thoughts.
1. This is just a simple solution of using the right tool!
2. The cakes are baked and they look fine!

He had succeeded in baking the cake from scratch (two separate batches since it was going to be two layers). I only needed to add the other layer and then help spread the pudding.  All was good to go, until I successfully flipped the second layer and then watched the cake start to crack like the San Andreas fault in the 1978 Superman movie. (watch this video clip if you need a refresher).

As I observed his facial expressions, I calmly said, "This is no problem.  We'll cover it with pudding and no one will notice."  He seemed satisfied, but as I proceeded to finish the cake, I noticed how I had to revisit 'the crevice' multiple times due to the gradual widening.

It was then, my son divulged an important tidbit!  I had observed that the center of the top layer was a little "molten", but thought it had just been removed from the oven a few minutes early.  However, his explanation offered full clarity.  During the process of following the recipe, my son mistakenly added more than the 1/2 cup of coconut oil... he had added 1 1/2 cups. 😉

Again, I calmed his troubled mind and said, "This will be a very good, moist cake!"

Now, upon learning the actual cause and realizing my prior idea to conceal the shifting tectonic plates would not work, I then had a brilliant idea.  Let's work with the crack and turn it into a design!  We'll play off the underworld theme from the recent movie, Coco, and use a skull that he picked up from a recent trip to Mexico as a decoration.

He liked the idea and with the cake now complete, he carried to the car and away they went!

All, was good until I received two calls while they were in transit.  "Dad, the cake is breaking apart even more!  And, the skull is falling into the crack!"

Explaining there is nothing left to do cosmetically, he would just have to be satisfied that the cake would taste great and that he had done a fine job of making it all by himself.

I eventually arrived to find all the cakes on the table as shown at the beginning of this post, but had to take a close up of the work of art. Several people had commented on his creativity and wondered how he had created the "coming out of the grave" effect.

I just had to chuckle and take a moment to pause and think of the wonderful lessons of life that this experience had provided. And, by the way, the cake did taste good!

Feel free to comment your thoughts of how this applies to finding the positive in all situations and how we can use as a metaphor for pursuing our personal best.  Or, maybe you might just say, "How can you go wrong with chocolate?"