Photo by jonathan romainon Unsplash
I’m spending the week in Oregon visiting my daughter. My sister, who lives in Boise, has come to visit, too, which is an extra nice surprise.
My sister, Jill, brought a book with her, about the enneagram (a kind of personality test.) Turns out, my enneagram number is 4. According to this test, that means I’m a romantic, or an individualist.
Her book says that every enneagram number comes with a deadly sin. And the number 4’s deadly sin is envy.
Fours, according to the book, are always worried that everyone else has something that they don’t. That there’s something missing in them that is holding them back from greatness — that everyone else has.
And that fours get caught up in the part that’s missing, and in longing for that missing thing — and in envying it in everyone else.
Apparently, this romantic can get so caught up in the longing for this thing that’s lacking that they never actually take the thing they want when it’s offered.
So as my sister was reading that to me, I just kind of felt my heart fall into my feet. Because it was so spot on.