No emotion brings us more personal pain or wastes more of our time than envy. When we envy, we are never free from stress, because envy takes no holidays. Shakespeare called envy the green sickness. Envy magnifies molehills into mountains.Just how foolish envy truly is becomes clear when we think of it as a row of hooks on which to hang grudges. When we envy others, especially our family members, we blind ourselves to the good we could see in all people. We are ignoring life's flowers to gather bouquets of weeds.

#####ROSIE....oh i was so envious, of EVERYONE who **had it better* than me and that was most of my people in my life...i was a product of abuse/ incest, and thus the mental/ emotional injuries that go with it....so of course i just kept making bad karma on top of more bad karma....i had no sense of self/ nothing but hate for God/ fear and dispair about life!! i wanted happiness/ love/ security...and i envied/ resented others for having it!!! i felt like i was a bystander, sitting there with my empty plate/ hungry as God passed the blessings out to others and left me hanging there.....this is what my perspective than.....it wouldn't be until i got into recovery that i would see that God blessed me too.......yes, life was hell!!! but i am the ONLY one of 5 kids who is in recovery!!!!! my siblings live half lives because they **didn't get it as badly* thus they can live in denial that "it wasn't so bad" i am finding my life!!!! i don't envy othrs anymore...i look at my poor sister, battling her 3rd round with cancer...i am healthy!!! i look at my oldest brother , bitter, angry, a malcontent no matter HOW much he has.....i am grateful for what i have i see my two younger brothers, drinking and drugging themselves to a slow death......i am clean!!! progressing in my recovery, i have love of good people in my life, i have a decent job, pay my bills, i am not "running from anything" anymore....i am the free one!!! i am finding emotional and mental sobriety....they are not.....the others i know??? they have their crosses to bear as well!!! i may not have a mate/ money....but i got my health, i have love, i have freedom the hate and resentment that ate me up......no i am not envious of another......i am too fucused on me and my recovery to waste my time on that anymore.....

When we envy the accomplishments or possessions of another, we will be better off if we look to our own prized possessions, to those things in ourselves that no one else has in exactly the same way.What riches do I have within and around me?