A Blog Inspired By My Conversation With Patty

Have you ever felt jealous of somebody else's life?  Especially when you read about those lives on Facebook?  Some people seem to have it soooo great.  They have lots of friends!  Beautiful homes!  Perfect family members! Loving marriages! Many fun activities to fill their days! New purchases they photograph so you can share in their joy! Delicious restaurant meals that sabotage your diet attempts!  Oh my goodness, if only you could Freaky Friday it and be your friend for a day!

Does Facebook somehow make you feel like your life is incomplete? That everybody else is having a great time of it while you are not? 

If you answered yes, welcome to the club. And please, continue reading.

If it helps any, let me share with you a lesson I learned one summer. Many years ago I spent my summers at the Port Deposit public swimming pool. (Ha!  How many locals remember that place?) I made friends with a pool regular, a mother about my age with two adorable sons.  She had the perfect life!  First of all, she was physically beautiful.  I envied her smooth tan, dark luxurious long hair, and her curvy figure.  I adored her boys.  They were such sweet kids.  One was brunette like her, and the other a redhead like his daddy.  She didn't have to work.  She lived in a gorgeous home, grew a fabulous garden, and canned and baked to her heart's content.  Her favorite times were spent with family and friends, vacationing and partying together. Well, as a single teacher living in a cramped furnished apartment and trying desperately to recover from a very difficult school year, I was so enamored of her; and I have to admit, so damn jealous that she had everything I thought I wanted.

As the summer progressed, our conversations deepened and eventually she confessed something to me that put everything else into perspective.  She'd once been hospitalized for weeks following a nervous breakdown she suffered in her attempt to be perfect.  Well hey, I'd never felt the compulsion to be perfect, and I'd certainly never required medical attention because of it.  Maybe my life wasn't so bad after all!

We all have our trials and tribulations.  If you get past the events people celebrate and publicize on Facebook, you'll remember that into each life some rain certainly does fall.  If you're feeling envious of someone, you can be sure someone else is feeling envious of you.  Life is like that.

My friend Dee and I have both suffered through some horrifying life events.  But, a while ago we sorta made a pact. And that was to focus on enjoying the simple good/fun moments as they were happening...really experience those times because who knew when the next one would come?  We keep our expectations minimal. Are we sacrificing dreams and just settling for the mundane?  No,  I prefer to think we're appreciating what we have and not moping about what we don't. (Well, sometimes I mope.)

So, this holiday season as people competitively post all the fun they are having while I am sitting home quietly playing solitaire on my computer, I'll try to keep things in perspective and remember that one of these days, I'll have an event to post on FB.  I'll take lots of pictures and make it look good!  Cause I'll know, it really is good (for now).