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The grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence).<\/strong><\/p>\n How many times in your life have you heard that idiom?<\/strong><\/p>\n What does it mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n Is it true?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you take that idiom literally it might be true.\u00a0 A former neighbor and I would complement each other on our lawns.\u00a0 One day as I stood on his back porch I realized that our lawn did actually look greener than his.\u00a0 But I knew that when I stood on our back porch his lawn always looked greener than ours!<\/strong><\/p>\n I realized that the effect on one lawn looking greener than the other had everything to do with perspective.\u00a0 We were looking at each other\u2019s lawn at an angle because our lawns sloped downward to the property lines.\u00a0 The light was hitting the grass at a different angle when I viewed his lawn from our porch than when I viewed our lawn from our porch\u2026and vice versa!<\/strong><\/p>\n But was the grass really greener or did it only appear to be so?<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at the idiom from another viewpoint.\u00a0 Instead of taking the saying literally, think of it as an expression of envy, which was the original intent of the statement. <\/strong><\/p>\n Someone else\u2019s job, house, car or life may seem better than your own because all you see of the other person\u2019s life or possessions are the positives.\u00a0 You envy them for having such a nice house\/car\/job\/life.<\/strong><\/p>\n For example the other person\u2019s house may look more expensive than yours and you may be envious that your house doesn\u2019t look that nice. But what you may not know is that the inside of their house things are falling apart.\u00a0 If they saw the inside of your nicely maintained house they may be envious of you and think that your house was nicer than their own.<\/strong><\/p>\n When we say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, what we are really saying is that other people seem to be in a better situation in life than we are.<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember, however, that things are not always as they appear and the reality is that their life may not be as good as it seems.<\/strong><\/p>\n Once again I\u2019m reminded that \u201cLife is a matter of perspective.\u201d \u00a0And sometimes our perspectives are not even based in reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n