Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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July 17, 2008

Social Media and Greener Grass

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 5:51 am

Look Down and Think

relationships button

They say that the grass is always greener . . . over there where the other guy is.
In a world of social media networking, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with insignificance.
Turn away for a minute and real or imagined distance seems to happen.

It’s can seem that the world has left us bereft and virtually homeless.
It’s not an unknown feeling. Thoughts of being a social outcast have been with us since we’ve been with each other.


Shakespeare even bemoaned such feelings in my favorite sonnet.

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least . . .

It was love that saved him.

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

And someone probably looked at Shakespeare “desiring his art.”

Last Monday, I was thinking about all of this, when I looked down to see that
the grass at my feet was as green as I could ever wish.

Grass-is-greener-Liz-Strauss-photo


Sometimes I take other folks’ grass too seriously.
Have you thought about what you already have that other folks only hope to experience?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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14 Comments to “Social Media and Greener Grass”

  1. July 17th, 2008 at 9:36 am
    Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach said

    Hi Liz,

    After working thru lots of angst in my earlier years, I now view folks who are more talented, successful, exciting, etc. than I as people I can honestly *admire*….and not envy.

    Removing the negative emotions allowed my ego to dissipate and become much more open to learning lessons about either myself or what I’m capable of…in the future.

    I wrote a bit about that at http://tinyurl.com/4yg3gq when the art of humbleness (is that a word? :) ) smacked me upside the headed (an event that really opened my eyes and taught me much). So long as we’re still breathing, we’re all students in this thing called ‘life’.

    Everything happens for a reason,

    Barbara

  2. July 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am
    Karen Putz aka Deaf Mom said

    This is oh-so-true. I was having a conversation with my cousin, a gal whose grass I think is definitely greener than mine, and she was gazing back– telling me that the grass was greener on my end.

    Like you said, we do need to look down and catch the green in our own grass… and appreciate it more.

  3. July 17th, 2008 at 11:52 am
    SpaceAgeSage said

    I grew up on a farm and watched cattle and horses enough to know that if you stretch your neck between two strands of barbed wire to eat the supposedly greener grass, you get poked in the neck a lot and then your neck starts to ache.

    It took me awhile, but I’ve learned to like the grass under my feet and the blue sky above me. Home at last.

  4. July 17th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
    Ricardo Bueno said

    It’s certainly not always easy but I’ve learned to appreciate the things that I do have and to embrace the possibilities of the future ahead of me.

    Focusing on things I don’t have and envying them accomplishes nothing. We have to enjoy this journey called life. Otherwise, what’s the point?

  5. July 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Barbara!
    What a great story of learning you brought with you. Thanks!

    Everyone I meet has so much to offer I get taken over by it sometimes. So many people and so much to learn.

  6. July 17th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Karen,
    I see your smiling eyes as I remember them and I think, “Hmmm I need to get me a smile in my eyes like that.”

    Yeah. We all need to remember our grass is green. :)

  7. July 17th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Ricardo!
    Thing is that we’ll never have all that we see. Can’t happen. So we’ll always be left wanting until we figure out how to enjoy what we already have. :)

  8. July 17th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Sage,
    Ouch! barbed wire!

    I could do without the pain in the neck, worrying about that grass in the next field . . . and who’s going to mow it. :)

  9. July 17th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
    Kurt Henninger said

    Absolutely true. One can get lost in the sea of social media. It does at times seem that the grass is greener elsewhere, but it is the journey that you are on, not necessarily where you end up.

  10. July 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    thanks, Kurt,
    That’s exactly what I was trying to say. You did it with a whole lot less words. :)

  11. July 17th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
    Todd Jordan said

    I’m working through more angst each time I turn around. Most it is because of my inability to let go. Oh, I let go of things, but some things never get gone.

    I believe the more we realize that is truly not worth our envy or time, the happier we’ll be. Riches won’t make us satisfied with life unless they are riches of which we can’t be robbed.

  12. July 18th, 2008 at 5:11 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Todd!
    Yeah, when we invest ourselves in chasing after what we don’t have, we’re bound to be always left wanting.

  13. July 27th, 2008 at 9:11 am
    Andrew Lightheart said

    Two ways that my grass is green is:

    ~ I run a business where I’m doing what I LOVE doing (not a wage slave any more!)

    ~ I am in a relationship which gets happier and more loving every day - 8 and half years and counting!

    ~ I am living somewhere warm and sunny almost every day (Singapore)

    Thanks for reminding me.

    (Sorry - got a bit behind in my reader…!)

  14. July 27th, 2008 at 9:13 am
    Andrew Lightheart said

    Oh - that became three!

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