What did you get?

When two young siblings receive wrapped gifts, it’s not long after opening them that the question is exchanged, “What did you get?”

It’s just as likely to happen when dessert is served. Whose slice of pie is bigger? Mine or yours?

The trouble is, as adults, we can do the same thing.

Is my share as big as yours? Does the world treat one of us more kindly? Is your job easier than mine? Have you gotten better breaks than me?

This rabbit hole is deep.

What’s worse, it distracts us from focusing on our own potential. It limits our ability to be grateful. Our own gardens begin to wilt as we obsess over what’s been planted in someone else’s soil.

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Said another way: gratitude is experienced most fully when it’s not wrapped in comparison.