The Grass Is Never Greener — My Grass Is Purple

Thoughts on Comparison

Ifie Natasha Brandon
4 min readSep 28, 2020

For centuries,we have been using the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” to express our perception that the lives of others are somehow better than ours. And while I understand the idiom, I’m challenged to believe that in actuality, not only is the grass on the other side NOT GREENER, it’s a completely different color.

For the past few months, I’ve been reflecting on the human desire to have what others have. We often wake up with a desire to be prettier, richer, more compatible with the person that dumped us, in another person’s position at work, a different city etc.

I’ve had countless conversations with friends and family that have proven this point. Recently, my hubby and I were talking about a friend of ours. She has a great job, drives a nice car, gets to travel,is in a great relationship, is SUPER fly all the time, and lives in a nice apartment in the city along with many other great things. In our eyes, her life appears “perfect”. Of course we realize no one’s life is perfect, hers just seems REALLY REALLY close.

After having a conversation with her (and telling her how perfect her life seems), she shared some of her challenges and (though her life still seemed pretty great in my opinion) I realized no ones’ grass is…

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Ifie Natasha Brandon

Multi medium storyteller | Author | Yogi | Somewhere between Lauryn Hill, Nola Darling, & Jesus Christ