{"id":1231,"date":"2014-06-21T19:42:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T19:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2014-06-15T19:55:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T19:55:11","slug":"chronic-illness-and-gardening-learning-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/chronic-illness-and-gardening-learning-to-grow.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic illness and gardening: Learning to Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Decelles<\/a>I’ve heard it said that, “as we grow, we learn.” Well, I’m finding out things a bit differently: “As I learn, I grow.”<\/p>\n

Lupus requires that I don’t spend a great deal of time outdoors, especially during the sunniest times of the day, so I have become quite fond of “gardening” indoors, raising African violets. As I’ve delved more into the particulars of these lovely plants, I’ve discovered many things that apply to my life with chronic illness and pain, too. Among them:<\/p>\n

1) Plants will grow if given the right combination of light, water, and, occasionally, food. But to become truly lovely, from time to time, they will need to be shaped and pruned.<\/p>\n

How like life that is! \u00a0What comes from our darkest moments, our most-pruned times, is often the greatest of blessings!<\/p>\n

2) As plants age, they lose their baby leaves and smaller blossoms and, under the right conditions and with the right care, they mature into breathtaking beauty.<\/p>\n

Once we accept our aging, and learn to “grow” into it, we just might look and act our very, very best!<\/p>\n

3) The process of growing takes time, but is well worth it.<\/p>\n

I constantly need to be reminded, “Patience, patient!” and tending to my African violets is perfect just for that!<\/p>\n

4) The variety of African violets is astounding – yet each is love-ly in its own right.<\/p>\n

Just like each of us, we are all so very different, but very much the same in our worthiness for God’s love.<\/p>\n

5) \u00a0Flowers in bloom beg to be shared!<\/p>\n

I’m always eager to share pictures or gift plants to people; sharing these treasures is part of the fun of growing. It is the same with the joy I feel in my faith – Light, God’s love, and all good things from Him are simply too wonderful not to share.<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard it said that, “as we grow, we learn.” Well, I’m finding out things a bit differently: “As I learn, I grow.” Lupus requires that I don’t spend a great deal of time outdoors, especially during the sunniest times of the day, so I have become quite fond of “gardening” indoors, raising African violets.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,4],"tags":[111,29,44,45,113,1093,1094,112],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","tag-african-violets","tag-chronic-illness","tag-chronic-pain","tag-faith","tag-gardening","tag-growing","tag-patience","tag-violets"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic illness and gardening: Learning to Grow - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/06\/chronic-illness-and-gardening-learning-to-grow.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic illness and gardening: Learning to Grow - 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}