You're paralyzed in your front yard looking at all the beautiful ones around you. You attempted to water your lawn but got side tracked by everyone else's. So there you are, standing with the hose in your hand, no water coming out. You started focusing so much on the business of the neighborhood, you started to neglect your own. You became so ashamed of your own yard that you stopped nurturing it. You stopped bothering to grab the hose. You even stopped trying.

That's usually how it happens. We get a glimpse at what we think other people have, and no longer think ours is good enough. We throw ours to the ground when we realize it's not like theirs. Because the two are different we think theirs is better. We look at their grass as being greener; as ours not being green enough.

But it's important for us to hash a few things out:

Their grass isn't greener; their grass is simply a different shade.

The beauty of someone else’s life shouldn’t affect how you perceive the beauty of your own.

 
They put work into their grass.

You don't know how much any one person worked to get to where they are. You don't know what someone had to give up to get to where they are. You don't know the demons they had to fight nor the battles they've won (and lost). The life you see is what people choose to show you, you have no idea about the background work or the soul searching someone has had to do to get to where they are. Don't envy their life without first recognizing their plight. 

Their grass is different.

Not just by the color, but everything that dictates its color. It's location. It's maturation. It's proximity to the sun. Your life is not their life. Your struggles have not been their struggles. Your purpose is not theirs. Your journey is not theirs. So, of course, it'll be different. The two of you won't ever have the same experience, no matter how close you are to each other. 

When you look at the outward appearance of people’s grass - their lives, their jobs, their relationships - you’re looking at the side they want to show you. The side that’s favorable. The side that the public will approve of. You don’t see the inner-workings. You don’t see the fights and insecurities of their glowing relationship. You don’t see the 14-hour shifts they put in at the job you want so bad. You don’t see the financial struggles that person endures just to afford their beautiful townhome and luxury vehicle. You don’t see what their pregnancy was like or their postpartum depression was like. You’re comparing a life you know (yours), to one you know nothing about (theirs). A life with struggles you don’t see. So don’t for one second think that your life is any less luxurious, valuable, or impressive as someone else’s. Especially not when you were fine with yours until you seen theirs. Learn that your life is as great as you make it. The struggles you endure are as useful as you allow them to be. Know that everything we think we want, comes with some burden. A burden that may be unbearable to the person dealing with it; a burden that may be equally as unbearable to us if we had it. Know that true joy comes with doing the most with what you have. True happiness comes with finding the beauty right where you are.

The reason their grass is so green is because they were focused on it. Their grass got green because they were dedicated to changingwhatever brown patches they found. Their yard became so perfect, because they spent more time appreciating, loving, and nurturing what they had, instead of what they didn't. So instead of placing pressure on the things you don't have, appreciate what you do. Recognize that the good you think others have, is in the palm of your own hands; and use that hose (truth) to water your own grass.