The little things that make big things less.

I was speaking to somebody the other day and the word jealousy came into the conversation. I found myself remembering the song, "Jealousy," sung by Billy Fury.

Here was a song about how the emotion of jealousy can spoil even the most important of relationships. Here was somebody that had everything he wanted from a very special relationship but it was shattered and he lost what he had because as he said, "It was all over my jealousy."

It is very strong and dangerous emotion. it never seems to bring anything but hurt and harm either to the person who is jealous or to the person to whom the emotion is directed towards.

But it is not always about another person, though it most often is it can also be seeing others with something that we would like to have but just cannot. 

It is almost a very natural emotion even though it can and often is a spoiling feeling. 

When I was a very young boy I was brought up in a family where my parents tried their very best to give me a good childhood. My mothers' priority was to make sure that she always put good and healthy food on the table, especially on a Friday evening when we always had something special.

This desire of my mother to feed us well, of course, had consequences that we had to learn to live with. Putting food on the table meant that there was not a lot left for other things. many of the friends I had who lived in the same street and as I did seemed to have things I would have loved but could never have. 

I can remember very clearly the first awareness of jealousy. I can also remember my father telling me very earnestly that it was not an emotion to be cherished, it only brought unhappiness and pain.

I can also remember believing that no matter what job in life we had we should all be paid equally. I had many discussions with adults who tried to make me see the mistakes in my thinking. Later when I first read the parable of the vineyard my argument seemed to be supported by this account. it seemed to say that all should be paid equally?

Let me go back to my days when I lived in a street of very small houses in a part of town called, "Dollytown." Every house the same and all like little doll houses.

There was a great sense of sharing in the street. Vegetables were grown in almost every garden, with the very odd exception, come harvest time there was a real sharing. I can remember clearly the beetroot day. All the beetroot was cropped and in two houses the washing boiler was put on and all the beetroot from all the gardens was cooked. 

it was all then taken to one of the houses and all of us young ones gathered to deskin and slice them. They were then shared equally to all the homes even those who had not grown any. Once the job was completed and we all had bright red hands and some of us who could not resist red mouths, we were all given an ice cream cone for our labour.

All were given the same size of cone even those who had eaten more than they had sliced. I cannot remember anybody complaining that there might have been an unfairness in the system. We were as a community operating under a different system than the courtroom. There seemed to be no jealousy that some people had not even grown anything.

What a wonderful lesson about not being jealous of others.  There was a side effect for me one year that I just must share. I ended up being taken into hospital because I told my mother that I was passing blood in the toilet. I so did not want to go but they were taking it very seriously. I was in overnight. The next day it was discovered that I had been eating a great deal more beetroot than I had owned up to. 

Being brought up in such a community and being, I now realise, very poor I learned that jealousy was never emotion to nourish. Fortunately, this has meant that I have never been a jealous person and have learned to rejoice and be happy for others who achieve or progress.

It is not a pretty emotion and never ever brings a positive outcome. rejoice in what we have and if we can then whenever possible share it with others. This is especially true of another emotion, LOVE, there is no limit to how much love there is around and there is always plenty for everybody.

Have a marvellous love filled day.