Don't Envy, Emulate

Envy used to be my besetting sin (well, envy, and anger, and sloth). I even tried to give up envy once for Lent and found that I couldn’t do it. By day three of Lent I had that old knife-in-the-gut stabbing sensation when I contemplated all the manifold blessings of Other People.

But then I had a breakthrough. I started keeping a little list in my list-making notebook of people whose whole lives I truly envied so that I could have a reference point for what it is that I want to achieve in my own life. The people I envied could become my role models, my templates, my guiding stars.

One thing I found when I began keeping the list is that the people who had the most wonderful lives (in my appraisal) weren’t the people with the most money, or the most successful children, or the biggest houses; they were people who most filled their lives with creative joy. I have two writer friends with amazing, enviable lives, and neither one is even published, except in little, non-prestigious, non-lucrative ways. But they write every day and make their writing the center of their days; they write in interesting and beautiful places; they honor their creative efforts and celebrate them.

Wait – I could do that.

I really could.