“The coconut milk is off.”
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen The White Lotus Season 3, spoilers ahead.
Sometimes when something feels off to me, or something goes wrong, I will say this phrase out loud: “The coconut milk is off.”
Most of the time, people just tilt their head and stare at me. But occasionally, a fellow White Lotus fan will start laughing, because they get it.
It’s an epic scene.
The dad in the Ratliff family is unraveling unbeknownst to his kooky wife and entitled children. Shady business dealings, financial ruin closing in, and the kind of pressure that makes someone feel like they’ve lost control of everything. And in that desperation, he spirals into this distorted belief that he can “spare” his family from what’s coming.
So he makes a round of piña coladas for them one evening near the end of their trip.
There’s this intense moment where he is about to poison his entire family.
And then, at the very last second, he stops. The audience lets out a collective sigh, followed by a wave of belly laughs, because the scene is somehow both tense and hilarious at the same time.
It’s only at the very last moment that his conscience kicks in. He knocks the glass out of their hands declaring, “The coconut milk is off!” He cannot go through with it. Especially not when it comes to his most innocent child, the one he feels the most protective of, the one he would want to spare.
Sometimes, it’s not until we’re about to lose someone that we freak out and feel desperate to prevent that from happening.
Yes, in retrospect, he probably should not have had so many shady business dealings that led to the financial ruin he was trying to spare them from. But in the end, he did have a conscience.
The Part That Sticks With Me the Most
Strangely enough, when the most innocent child doesn’t clean the blender (so gross), he ends up getting poisoned anyway.
Not from the dad’s big, dramatic decision.
But from what was left behind.
Old residue.
Uncleaned.
Ignored.
He goes to make a fresh drink, and instead, he drinks something contaminated.
And I’m Going to Go With That Part of the Story
Because if you go to make a fresh drink (aka start a new relationship) with poisoned fruit residue still left in the blender…
you’re going to taint the drink.
If not “kill” the relationship.
Why?
Because you haven’t healed.
You haven’t corrected.
You haven’t fixed the issues that poisoned the first round of drinks, and possibly other relationships in this metaphor.
This Is the Pause
This is the work.
Not rushing into something new just because you can.
Not trying to replace what was lost.
Not bypassing the discomfort of sitting with yourself.
But actually tending to what’s still there.
Cleaning the blender.
Because Otherwise
You bring old wounds into new connections.
Old patterns into new dynamics.
Old fears into new people.
And then you wonder why something that should feel fresh…
feels off.
So if something feels off, if your intuition is whispering, if the pattern feels familiar in a way you can’t quite explain…
Pause.
Take a breath.
Wash the blender.
Before you try to make another piña colada.
With clarity,
LC
P.S. If you saw that picture with Parker Posey’s character and said, “Piper noooooo,” we are officially best friends.
P.P.S. If you’ve never seen The White Lotus, you are missing out big time.
Vibe with Me LC 