The Grass is...Greener?

First off, let me just say that Esther's latest post (Driving Myself Crazy) was totally awesome, and if you haven't read it yet, you need to do so. I hope that her writing brings as much laughter to you as it does to me. =)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone other that yourself? I certainly have. Throughout my years of life, I have been a princess, an orphan, a traveler, popular, unpopular, and about a million other things. In case you haven't noticed yet, I have a bit of an imagination. =) When I was younger, I loved to "go" places and "be" different people. Even though I have grown up, I still travel all over the world, into a million situations, through books, and actual travel. While there is nothing wrong with having an imagination (it is part of us, created by God!), there are times that it can become a bit...extreme. Even though it is fun to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to sound cliche, it can lead to ungratefulness. If you spend too much time "in" someone else's life, or in imaginative fantasies, chances are that you will not be very thankful for your own life. Everyone has heard the saying "the grass is always greener on the other side". If you are like me, then you likely roll your eyes every time that you hear this statement. It's like "yeah, yeah, yeah. I know."  It's easy to look at someone else and say, "Her life is so much better than mine. Everything about her is perfect." Or to say, "He totally has it all together. I wish that my life were like his." It's easy to look at someone else and see everything that is good, because that is all that we are looking for (note* it is also easy to look for the bad things and be judgmental of people. Please don't do this either!). It is quite possible that the person who seems to "have it all together" actually feels like their life is falling apart. Maybe it is time that we look beyond our own problems to see that the grass is actually greener on our side. In my travels to Mexico and Ethiopia, I have seen a lot of poverty. I've seen a lot of poverty in the U.S. as well. We have food. We have clothes. We have a bed. We have a family and friends. Many people do not have any of these things. In both of these countries, I visited an orphanage. They didn't have much, but most of all, beyond each other and the caregivers, they didn't have a family. I met people who had watched friends slowly die from AIDS. I have been asked for leftover food because these children were so hungry. I don't know about you, but I don't wake up wondering if there is enough food for breakfast. I don't worry about dying because I drank unclean water. I think that we need to look beyond ourselves and our "problems" (I use quotation marks because our problems are often really insignificant), and see that our life is really good. We are extraordinarily blessed. Because if we lived like this, then maybe we would stop daydreaming about being someone else, and actually take the time to invest into someone who has less than we do.

Blessings,
Hannah