Story Behind the Story

THE MAGIC OF LEMON DROP PIE

 I wrote The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie during the long months of Covid lockdowns in Seattle in 2020. During that strange, isolating, and scary year, I found solace in escaping into Lolly’s world, a place where there was no virus or face masks or the unsettling times we all found ourselves thrust into so suddenly. I sought escape in Lolly’s world, but the emotions and experiences from my own life found their way into her story nonetheless. Her journey rings true to me in a deeply personal way after the past few years, and I suspect it may do the same for others as well.

Lolly’s story is about what happens when life takes an unexpected and unwanted turn, when the future you envisioned for yourself, the dreams you dreamed, are not what you actually get. We all have regrets. We all have ways we wish life had gone a little or a lot differently. Yet Lolly’s experiences remind us that we can’t go back and change the past. We can only move forward and make what we have the best it can be. It’s a story of resilience, of having the courage to embrace life as it is, and of holding on to the hope that we can write ourselves a better story despite things not turning out as we expected.

 As I look around at the world as it is now, altered in some big and many small ways after several tough years, I take courage from Aunt Gert’s instructions to Lolly to “follow your bliss”. Aunt Gert tells Lolly that to do so, she must “be honest, pay attention, and seek joy”. The world has been hard these past few years. It looks like it’s going to continue to be difficult in one way or another. This is just life. We can’t control what happens, but we can follow Aunt Gert’s advice to Lolly to seek out that spark of light in even the darkest circumstances, and we can try our best to be honest, pay attention, and seek joy in every twist and turn of our own life story.

I hope Lolly’s journey encourages us to muster the courage to follow our own bliss. I hope we all can be honest, pay attention and seek joy, no matter how dark the days. I hope we keep following that spark of light every day. And I hope that in the end, like Lolly,  we will choose to make lemonade (or a gin fizz or a lavender lemonade popsicle) from all the lemons life may hand us.

Life is beautiful and hard and unexpected. Let’s make the most of what we’ve been given.

~ Rachel