One of these days I came across yet another gripping post by Seth Godin and stumbled upon a phrase therein which made me pause and reflect.

Spend enough time looking through the glass on your tablet and you’ll come to believe that you’re the only one with a less-than-perfect situation. With the right filter, the grass really is greener.

…With the right filter, the grass really is greener…

What Seth is talking about is more on how people portray their life to others: people rarely put their bad pictures from a messed up day on Instagram. Obvious notion, so rarely forgotten. Indeed, sometimes you have a peak for example at perfectly looking Insta-moms and their perfect kids in perfect outfits perfectly eating their perfect lunch in perfectly clean kitchen of a perfect house (blaaaaargh!). And then you look around at your messy-messy existence… Well, you know what I mean! It is about the “filter”. The grass ain’t greener there.

Yet, this is only one facet.

The “filter” is not only how you portray yourself to others. Likewise it is the tool in your own toolbox. I am not going to elaborate on the fact that just by being able to read this post from your own device in a safety of your fully equipped house is already putting you at privilege. This is surely a perspective to always remember. We are the lucky few. In many ways. Nonetheless we want more and that’s fine too.

As long as we don’t fall into the trap of always waiting for “the grass” to first become “greener” before we can feel happy.

Yesterday there was a comment online under the post sharing someone’s fascinating art experience, which was a perfect illustration of a broken “filter”. Instead of admiring a truly cool thing, a person grumbled about something very remotely related. Sadly, there are people who will always find a reason to complain… Even standing in the middle of the greenest possible “grass”.

You might not be able to choose what happens to you. You might not even be able to choose where you live at the moment. But, damn, you are the only one choosing your focus. You are choosing your “filter”, or better you are choosing what to “filter out”. Searching for positive, or searching for negative, the same as: spreading the positive or spreading the negative — that’s nothing, but a choice.

P.S.

For those of you reading also in Russian, I have recently shared on my personal Facebook page a story of Yulia Kremneva. She is a mother of a special child: her boy is deafblind (he neither hears, nor sees). Guess what? She talks LOVE. She sees LOVE. She is all about LOVE. Despite it all. Maybe even because of it all. Love is the filter she chose for herself and her “grass” is green enough. Maybe even greener than that of some of us…