The Grass Isn’t Always Greener

Right this minute, life is perfect.

Right this minute, I’m sitting in a hammock, in a slight breeze on a 37 degree afternoon. (That’s 98F if you are reading this in the US). I’m still in a damp swimming costume from a swim at the beach earlier and I stayed in it because it’s cool. The wind is rustling through the trees overhead. I can hear the waves crashing into the sand down on the beach. In the distance, I hear a pair of kookaburras trying to out laugh each other. There are other birds chirping up in the trees.

Like I said, life is perfect.

This is my favourite week of the year in Australia — the week between Christmas and New Year. Everyone is on holiday, most of the country seems to be at the beach, it’s the height of summer (my favourite season), and it is easy to lose track of what day it is.

This year in particular, I love it because my daughters are with me at the beach house and we have close friends staying with us too. We are super-relaxed. Our days are spent swimming, surfing, falling asleep in the hammock, reading, eating good food and drinking good wine. Like I said, life is perfect.

As I sit here and swing gently in the breeze, I realise that this moment is perfect for me for so many reasons. And then as I reflect on the past year (as I’ve been doing quite a lot in the past few days), I realise that my whole year has been made up of thousands of perfect moments.

Some of those moments could be classified as idyllic — like this one just now. Some might be classified as ‘bad’ as they caused pain or heartache in some way to me or someone else in my life. But they were all perfect. They had to happen the way they did so the next thing could happen in my life.

Too often I think people get caught up in ‘grass is always greener’ thinking. They think someone else they know has a better life than them or better things around them. They are constantly striving for something that is unattainable. Because perfection already exists. It’s all around each one of us. And the key I think, is to be grateful for all experiences.

We’ve each created the life that we have. If we don’t like the life we have this moment, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t perfect. It means that it is perfect to get us thinking about changing it. And when enough things happen to get us thinking this way, we have the power within ourselves to do something to change it and create the life we want.

My life today doesn’t resemble my life three years ago. I have made so many changes in the past few years that very little of that life and who I was in that life, remains. Those changes have impacted almost every area of my life. With each change, I have met the right people at the right time to help me on my life journey. I have been led to the right books, the right situations, the right quietness and stillness to help me along my way. A friend recently remarked how different I look now – younger, happier, more myself.

My life is lovely. It is still filled with hardship and sadness as well as love and light, but I appreciate each and every moment for what it is. Without the cold of wintertime, I wouldn’t appreciate the warmth of summer. The heartache of not having my daughters with me on Christmas morning as they were at their dad’s, means that having them here with me this week is so much sweeter and I appreciate them more. Because of the periods of darkness in my life, I appreciate the times of love and laughter and light with friends and family more than I ever did in the past.

I know no one can live a life full of sunshine and happiness everyday. I have come to appreciate the struggles, the pain, the darkness, the sadness. I am truly grateful for these times because they make the other moments of my life even better.  And usually it’s in the times of struggle, pain, darkness or sadness when I learn the most about myself and life. As a life journey person, I don’t think I can do any better than that.

So right this minute, my life is perfect. I hope yours is too no matter what’s happening.