We are all familiar with feelings of jealousy, at least I hope I’m not the only one. These feelings arise out of experiencing the unfairness of life. Feeling that I should have what she has, she doesn’t appreciate it, she hasn’t earned it, she doesn’t deserve it, but I do. The truth of it is that life really is not fair. Rather than resent it or try to analyze it, or even change that fact, I have discovered that it is better to accept it and do the best with what life has allotted me. I realized a long time ago that for the most part, none of us deserve anything we have, or have experienced, good OR bad. Did I deserve my wonderful children? Did others deserve their challenging children? Did I deserve my troublesome marriage and others deserve their happily-ever-afters? Is any of this fair? No. Am I entitled to have things different from what I have created for myself? No. Things are what they are, sometimes because of our choices and hard work, sometimes because of others’ choices and hard work. And so what is the answer to the green-eyed monster? It is gratitude. Only gratitude for our own circumstances, whatever they are, can help us overcome those tendencies to compare what we have, or don’t have, with what others have. Only gratitude can bring us to that charitable frame of mind where we “envieth not.”
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