We spent the afternoon with family yesterday and it is always nice to get together and catch up. I have a sister who is a few years older than me and I sometimes find myself playing the comparison game. She and her husband are very involved in their local Church, they sing in the choir, they garden together, they provide care for their granddaughter, they have a very active life. The contrast between where we are in life makes me wonder if one of us wasn’t adopted?

It’s really not fair to either of us when I do this comparison because we both have developed our talents and our lives based on circumstances we have faced. We are both amazing women who are living life as best we can. And we do share some basic values that were passed on from our parents. When it comes to politics and religion, we are mostly in accord. We both have generous and caring natures. We are both survivors and will get through whatever life throws our way.

This may seem like a slightly different take on my role of CarePartner, but what I am really getting at is that I shouldn’t dismiss what I have or what I am doing because it is different from what I see in others around me. I use my sister as an example but there is a whole world out there of people who have different lives based on different situations. It does me no good to try to emulate them nor to be envious because I think they have it better than me. I don’t know them or their challenges, I just know my own. As long as I remember to be grateful for the relationship I have with my husband and keep doing my best each and every day, then I must be living the right life for me.