Life is a package

The grass is always greener growing on the other side, right? It’s all a matter of perspective. As one commentator here once said, the grass on our side of the fence is green because we’ve tended it with loving care.

But it’s still easy to see our neighbor’s lawns and think about how much we want to live there. However, it might be a nice place to visit . . .

Appearances can be deceiving—and our grass is on the other side of someone else’s fence, too. One of my friends, Michelle Davidson Argyle, has written very honestly about her struggles with envy (which we all have!), and she pointed out some great thoughts on the topic by Monica Wood a couple months ago. I’ll just quote a little here (adding my own emphasis):

Would you really want another life? You can’t go around cherry picking from this life or that one. Maybe you want his Pulitzer, her reviews, his money, her talent, but you’d also have to take his lung x-ray, her mother’s death, his stutter, her truly hideous hair. And besides, you’d have to give up your singing voice, your friend Robin, the two hundred bird songs you know by ear. So there you go. Life’s a package, and you know–you know this–you don’t truly want any package other than your own.

As much as my kids make my crazy and as much as I sometimes struggle with the vicissitudes of life as a mother, I wouldn’t trade them—and all the bad and all the good that comes with them—for anything.

What do you think? What makes you value your life-package?

Photo by Jonathan