Ever looked at someone and pondered, and thought that I wish
I was like him? Or saw something, and said I wish it had belonged to me? Man is
a self-centered individual guarded by avarice or cupidity nonetheless. There
lies a thin line between your ambitions, your longings and envy, the menace of
all ills. With the passing time, I have infallibly acceded to the tautology, “God
has made you great, and you are the best as you are”. It doesn’t mean
acceptance of mediocrity or a sense of complacency, but satisfaction, the
antidote of jealousy.
Let me recount my childhood experiences. Whenever I saw a Barbie,
all I said was, “I wish I were so pretty”. With each passing day, objects of
envy changed. I had always longed for whatever I didn’t possess. I envied
people who were better than I, but in a way I appreciated them. I always wanted
to be the way they were. What started as objects changed my perspective of seeing
life. Running after what I didn’t have took its toll on me, it was a cascade of
wishes, one went, and another emerged. It was a cycle extended to infinity. But
then time changed me.
Just to share, there is a story someone told me. A man was sitting
under a tree, and a person came and told him not to vile away his time but
work. It goes like this.
Man: “May I know why?”
Person: “If you work
you’ll earn money.”
Man: “Then?”
Person: “Then you’ll
be rich famous and successful”.
Man: “Then?”
Person: “Then you can get married, have a family”.
Man: “Then?”
Person: “Then one day you can retire and relax”
Man: “I was relaxing already until you came and intervened.”
The short and simple moral goes like this. What you always
want is what you already have. It’s just that you need to introspect, look
inside yourself and find a hundred reasons to be happy for. God has made you a different
individual, unique in all ways. And so, you are not an object of comparison. (As
the cliché goes, “One can’t compare apples to oranges”) Just sit back and think
that the things you envy were what you had never really wanted. The glimmer or the glitter fades. It’s
just the gold that remains with the tides of the time. Dream big, aspire for
bigger, achieve the biggest, but don’t envy what you don’t have. May be it wasn’t
meant for you. Whenever you see someone,
don’t envy his attire, his achievements, or his possessions. If you anxiously want to be envious of
something, envy their smile because it certainly means you’ve lost yours.
“There’s no bigger possession than you, yourself”.
