I live in a regular house on a regular street in a regular neighborhood in College Station. Right off Rock Prairie. My next door neighbor is kind of a free spirit and I love her because she loves animals and treats her pets well. Her dogs always run to me when they see me to get pets and belly rubs and it brightens my day to see them.Recently she decided to build a chicken coop in her backyard and get a couple of chickens so she could have fresh eggs. Yep, right here in suburbia. There are two hens (thank goodness no crowing rooster!) and I think they are great. I was even given a few of their eggs and they are better than store-bought. But I’ve noticed something about them.
They are always looking for new ground to pick and scratch. Mind you they have a beautiful, lush backyard to enjoy…it looks like it’s out of a magazine. But yet, they roam and search. They have found a way to get into my backyard and I find them there quite often. Sometimes by the fence on the other side of my yard, which is all well and good but the neighbor on the other side of me has two large, black pit bulls in the backyard. Kept outdoors on chains…not socialized or trained…kind of feral and wild.
Do you see where this is going? They have a beautiful lush home and warm roost/coop made just for them and an owner that feeds them every day. Yet they still think there is some morsel out there that will be tastier than anything they have at home…so they put themselves in danger and go on the hunt. They could be attacked by dogs or hit by a car and yet they wander on. I watch them and think about how much we as human beings are like them.Why do we think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Usually it’s not. Our boredom or imaginings are bigger than the reality on that other side.
It seems to be a matter of the heart and spirit. I spent my 20s looking and searching for something bigger and better. I was very ambitious and wanted more out of life. I’ve lived all over the US and traveled internationally and discovered something: nothing is as it seems from the outside looking in. I thought Europe would be big and glamorous and it was small and dirty and nothing close to what Texas is like. I thought dating someone from another country would be so interesting…it was a disaster. I wanted to live on the West Coast in Southern California and I did for five years. But I found it superficial and lonely and full of users…it wasn’t as glamorous and fabulous as I had imagined in my mind.
My point is happiness and contentment can be very elusive. Truly happy people aren’t the ones who have everything they want. They are the ones that can appreciate what they have right now and where they’re at right now. Even if it’s not where they want to be in five or ten years. No misery lasts forever. Neither does blissful happiness. So appreciate what is good and bear with what is bad. Believe me, it can change in an instant. It took me being diagnosed with cancer in 2013 to realize that.
As of January 2017 I am cancer free. I do not take one day for granted. Is there greener grass out there somewhere? I have traveled enough and searched enough and endured enough to know that even if there is, I don’t care. This is where God has me right now and I am happy right where I am. Is it perfect? No, but it’s perfect for me. And I would bet your situation, while not perfect, has so much in it to be thankful for. I encourage you not to be like the neighbor’s chickens. It could end badly. And there is so much in life we miss in our own backyard.
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