Yesterday, I received an email from a real estate broker in Hoboken. Every few days, he sends me an email with two listings that might interest me. Although I am not ready to move, I love looking at what’s available. As I was scrolling through one of his listings, I was quite shocked at how big the apartment was—and then it happened. I arrived at a picture of the master bath, which was also enormous, until I saw the toilet. The toilet was completely distorted, no toilet looks like that. The image had clearly been “stretched” horizontally to make the room appear more spacious than it really was. For a moment, I felt like I was lied to or, at the very least, mislead.

Snapshots never tell the whole story, and they certainly don’t tell the whole story when they are intentionally misleading. Sometimes we are mislead by people on social media or even in person who share a “snapshot in time” that doesn’t really tell the whole story. It’s their prerogative, but we need to be sharper at detecting the misleading “pictures.” We need to be sharper because, very often, these snapshots in time make us feel worse about ourselves. I can assure you that all my snapshots on social media do NOT tell the whole story of my life—not by a long shot.

Do you find yourself comparing your life to that of others, whether that be on social media or otherwise? Not every picture will give it away with a distorted toilet, but trust me, it’s there. Living through a pandemic is not all sourdoughs and sunsets, at least not in my house. As you look at all the snapshots people are posting, please remember the toilet. And say to yourself, “It’s just a snapshot in time; it’s not the whole story.”

With Gratitude,

Beth