The "Good" Life

Aghhhh I did it again! I got sucked into the vacuum of comparison! There I sat moping among the dust bunnies and lost Legos of despair. You’ve been there too, I’m sure. Longing to have what someone else has. Wondering why it wasn’t you living that life. Imagining how wonderful, how perfectly perfect it would be to walk in their designer shoes! It was the letters after the persons name that got me this time. If only I made some other decisions along the way…. Would I too have those coveted letters after my name??? Would that make me better??

Thankfully, I realized my misguided state of mind, quickly reminding myself of what my Nanna once told me years ago. Laughing I recalled the day I was eating up the tabloid magazines at her house. My mother would never buy those but for a pre-teen girl they were life!! I’m sure I was being my normal darling self when this conversation arose. Okay, I may have been slightly overly dramatic in my angst of not living a pop stars life. I hit the limit on what Nanna could tolerate that day when she snapped me out of my pity party by scoffing loudly “Oh for goodness sakes Kristin, everyone wipes their own butts!”. Yep, my Nanna did not mince her words! I wasn’t sure how to take it at first, yet I knew that my melodrama needed to end, for now. I kept thinking of that for the rest of the day; even longer. It obviously made an impression as I still recall it to this day!

What my Nanna was every so gracefully telling me was that people are people. No matter how successful, famous, glamorous, or awful someone’s life may seem; at the end of the day, they are people facing the same situations we all face. It may be to different degrees, or it may not. We never truly know what’s going on behind the scenes in one’s life. Yet when all is said and done, we all feel the same feelings, we all experience love, loss, hatred, embarrassment, shame, joy, agony, sickness, health, and on and on. We all use the toilet too!!

I don’t need to have exactly what someone else possesses to live the life I envy!! What makes these other people’s lives truly seem desirable is their outward appearance of happiness. I state outward appearance because Hollywood has tragically shown us too often that some of the apparently happiest people are deeply depressed. Is it really the things that we long for? Maybe at the surface. I bet if we dig a little deeper, we’ll realize that it’s more the state of mind we covet. We really desire to be “fancy free” or “living the good life”.

And we can without all the excess, the gadgets and gizmos, the bells and whistles, even without the limitless credit cards. Living the good life comes from within ourselves! We decide what is good for us individually. We choose what is good for our family. We decide if we are going to be fancy free in our circumstances or if we’re going to get sucked into worthlessness. We, you and I, are AMAZING people living amazing lives that may even be the focus of someone else’s longing.

Our lives are front page worthy!! What would your headline read? What dazzling pose would you give for the camera? What accomplishment could you boast about? If you’re not sure, get with someone you trust, dig deep, and find your “good life”! You may need to take a few more steps, adjust some attitudes or make some changes to your life. You can do it! It’s never too late to make your debut!!