Green with Envy

Today I had a great talk with my mom and we discussed some friendships. We had a great talk in regards to issues of envy and jealousy. I’ve never considered myself a big fan of either, but today’s conversation broke things down a little more. You can have people around you for your entire life and never know they are either jealous of you or hold some type of envy on your life. I guess because much of the things that occurred in life I turned a blind eye. I never wanted anyone to feel as if I was better than them, but it turns out that because I made the right decision about things in life someone was looking at my life with envy. Shocking to me because I never saw it, but those around me did. Envy and jealousy can be a dangerous trait to have. We must remember that each person has the right to make their own decisions in life. If you decided to have kids or get married than good for you, but what you should never do is look upon someone else life and criticize them because they didn’t make the same impulse decisions you did. Through the discussion with my mom she was able to enlighten me that I had dated someone who was jealous of me. Now this I knew, because everything I did they had to do a one up. Why I'll never know considering we are on two different pay scales and our morals aren’t even on the same level? It can be very easy to confuse the word envy and jealous so I’m enclosing the definition for clarification. The definition of envy is a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success or possessions. Jealous is feeling resentment against someone because of that person's rivalry, success, or advantages. I really never put too much thought into these two words, but they can be really dangerous when dealing with friends. As stated before you can’t make someone else feel bad for the decisions you made with your life. To covet someone’s lifestyle is just plain stupid especially if you have been given the same type of opportunities in life.