Are You Missing The Good?
My first big girl place was a tiny 800 sq ft apartment that I rented within walking distance of my first job. I had just graduated college and, as my gift, my parents lovingly handed over my bills and said "Congratulations, welcome to the real world."
Okay it didn't go down just like that but it was a transition.
The tiny apartment was on the first floor and it overlooked the street. I couldn't paint the walls and the furniture was donated by my parents and grandparents. (You can see more of that apartment in this video)
The cheap carpets started to get to me and after some time I started to plan my next move.
Where to next!
That move consisted of me selling most of my things and moving in with Raymond. He lived down the street in a two bedroom apartment that overlooked a three hole golf course.
He had been living there for a few years and had already painted and decorated to his liking. His liking happened to mimic that of a smoking room from a 1890's country estate.
This 1,200 sq ft beauty was older than the apartment that I had just moved from. The dishwasher was loud, the dryer ate my clothes, and the washer was cheap.
Every day I had to climb a set of stairs to get up to that little home of ours and while I should have been excited about my daily exercise, I loathed lugging up groceries.
Not long after I moved in, I started to reminisce on my previous apartment. The sunlit patio where I grew beautiful flowers and a huge hot pepper plant. The ability to let Cody out while standing in my bathrobe behind the patio door.
As I looked around at the shady patio, the stained carpet, and the red walls, I started to become unsatisfied.
Where to next!
I reached out a friend of my parents and inquired about renting one of his homes that had been on the market for several years. A few months later, we were moving in.
It was surreal being in a house versus an apartment. No more early mornings with the neighbors getting up and banging around. No more shouting sessions between the daughter and mother. We were on an acre in a beautiful charming home.
Like before, the nasty face of dissatisfaction started to creep in.
I loathed the ambulances and fire trucks constantly running up and down the busy street we faced and the colony of mosquitos that swarmed me every summer. The storage in the bathroom was laughable. The fact that the sun never really brighten up the kitchen unless it was 7:30am during the summer got on my nerves.
All the things I missed about our old apartment started to fill in. The balcony that made it feel like we were living in a tree house. The fireplace that instantly warmed you up. The large spacious closets and the bright and cheery office.
And then it dawned on me that I have been missing the good this whole time.
I had become so focused on the things that drove me crazy that I was constantly missing the good.
It is so easy to get caught up in lamenting all the things we don't have, rather than noticing the wonderful things that we do.
We put happiness on hold because we want to make more money, buy the right house, lose those saddle bags, get better skin. We promise ourselves that when we achieve that goal, then we can slow down.
However, it is proven that what we focus on expands. So if we are constantly focused on what we don't have, then this energetically emphasizes our lack thus giving us a double dose of it.
The more we express what we are truly grateful for, the more love, joy, and happiness we will cultivate in our lives.