Green Eyed Monster

We are raised to share...to go to each others birthday parties and see other kids presents. We are typically taught how to put on a smile and be happy for other people.
Yet some how when we are older we still become the Green Eyed Monster...

I have 2 friends with two different lives but still deal with people who are jealous. Plain and simple. Jealous of them and their choices. Let me tell you about them. I am sure they won't mind.

One friend,I have been friends with her 10 yrs or so. She works. And she works hard. She has morals.Standards.Love of freedom. She is well off in the financial department. While her other friends,like me..were buying things for date nights and movie tickets. Cd's.Anything fun. She devoted everything she had to a career. 
Now it has paid off. She has decent credit for her age.Money in the bank. A vehicle. A Job. A boyfriend who has his own bedroom(yea, morals my friends) and she indulges in life.
Lets ask her though how many friends she has lost or chosen to cut ties from them..? Many.  All because of comments.

Comments like "You can pick up the bill you have a better paying job then the rest of us" "You do not need to worry you have money" "My kids come first" "Must be nice to eat out" "Why don't you get a new laptop you have the money" EVERYTHING was about her money.  They were jealous. They wanted something they didn't have and because they didn't have it they assumed she would be there to back them up. Pay the bill.  They assumed she has no idea about having kids and responsibilities. Not true. Her responsibilities are just different.

Why? Maybe it was the pay difference and the freedom our friend has OR it could have been the reality that they went down different roads. Roads we feel like we should have gone down too. Only in our minds we make excuses. Her parents are rich. She is smarter then me.  Instead of saying bluntly "I chose another path and ended up differently"


2nd friend does not work. But has a long term boyfriend and family that still helps out here and there. They go out to eat for almost every meal. They enjoy that. Comments fly with them as well. "Oh must be nice" "Man you eat out a lot" "Why don't you work if your not going to be a cook - home maker?" REALLY!?
We are categorizing people? There is only black and white? Work and home maker? Are we back in 1950?

But when I searched deeper. I realized these were people who were her age yet divorced. Living back at home. Had kids young. Etc. It was a camouflaged jealousy.

I, like other friends have had kids. Been married & some are still married & for some of us wrong choices made our credits go to hell in a hand basket. Life happened. It happened in a different manner then a woman who went after what she wanted and was okay with the time that passed. 
That's the part that gets me and I am guilty too. Time. We rush. Must get married,Must have kids,Must have freedom to do everything and anything.


 You can love your life and still be jealous.
I never want to be mad at someone because I don't know why they didn't pay for lunch when I am a stay at home mom. I never want to be jealous of someones 2013 vehicle when it might have problems under the hood. I don't want to have walls up with people because their life is a bit different then mine. We don't all go down the same paths in life. That's okay.

Do I envy Jennifer Lopez's bum and Victoria Beckham's wealth? Yea Maybe from time to time. Some jealousy is normal. =)

?Raven?