Jealousy, Then Grief

Dear Delyara, I had a moment of jealousy today that made me feel ashamed. Someone else’s life looked easy from where I was standing. Their relationship, their work, their confidence, their forward motion. I felt small and bitter in a way I do not like admitting. But underneath jealousy, for me, there is almost always grief. Grief for what I wanted. Grief for what I postponed. Grief for the energy I spent surviving instead of becoming. I am trying to be kinder to the parts of me that still ache when they see what they did not get.