GBE2 picture prompt....and the green eyed monster

Not my "dream" kitchen, but close enough.

This is NOT my kitchen. Not even close.This is the picture prompt for GBE2 (Group Blogging Experience) for this week. My task, should I choose to accept it, is to write whatever I want to about this picture. Now, I can't say I want to to write about this, but I will because it's stuck in my head, screaming to get out. Envy. It's what I feel when I see this picture.

Webster's defines Envy as a painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage. Yep, I think that covers it. That's my knee jerk response to this picture.

I do not like this. Envy is not an emotional state that I allow to live in my heart. I am not rich, but there are people with a lot less than I have. I know this. I have friends who have been blessed with all manner of material wealth and I am thrilled for them. As a childless middle aged woman, I could waste a lot of time feeling envy while listening to my friends and coworkers talk about the latest thing their kids are into. Or I can choose to feel joy for them. I choose joy. 

So, why do I feel envy when I look at this kitchen? 

• First of all, it has drawers. See them? Over in the far corner. 2 drawers. Which is 2 more than my kitchen came with. Seriously. Whoever built this trailer in the 1980's didn't think that drawers would be of value in a kitchen. For that matter, there are not any in the bathrooms either, but that's another story. 
• Second, look at all that counter space! This is something else the designers of my kitchen saw no need for. They obviously knew I am not a fan of cooking, right? 
• It's so clean. I mean, there is no junk piled anywhere. 
• Look at that fridge.....
• And the window...
• and the floor....

Okay! Enough of that! I think it is safe to say that I am painfully aware of this kitchen and all its glory. I want this kitchen, or one like it. Bad. I could show you my kitchen, but that would just make me feel sad and discouraged, and I have enough to deal with, with all this envy floating around. 

I hope you can read the sarcastic, self deprecating humor here. Because while I do feel a fleeting moment of envy when I look at this picture, it's not all I feel. That moment of envy quickly turns to thankfulness when I realize how blessed I really am. Okay, not in the kitchen department maybe, but in a million other ways. 

• I have a husband I adore who adores me (most of the time)
• I have a house full of fur babies who will never need to borrow the car or bail money
• I have my mom living within 15 miles of my home, alive and well
• I have my dad, all be it states away in West Virginia, but also alive and well
• I have friends and family who love me
• I have you

I may not have a beautiful home, a new car, or a big bank account. But I am blessed. God is good and he has taken excellent care of me. He is good, all the time. And because of that, because of Him and all He has given me, I can say good bye to envy and move on into my day with a joyful heart. And a renewed desire to renovate my kitchen. :-)