{"id":1382,"date":"2014-10-07T01:16:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T01:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1382"},"modified":"2014-10-02T18:25:22","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T18:25:22","slug":"tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html","title":{"rendered":"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maureen<\/a>It’s TLC Tuesday again! And between last week and this week, so many more problems have cropped up in our world and in our lives. Large and small, these troubles can stir up a lot of fear, angst, worry, and dread. Sometimes, you might think it would be so nice to just “get away from it all!” But would that be irresonsible? Naive? Childish?<\/p>\n

Not at all!<\/p>\n

We need to balance the “bad” with the “good” in our lives, and we need to make sure that we’re not overwhelmed by the challenges and pain we see and experience. Why? Because there is more to life than problems, and there is more to the world than darkness.<\/p>\n

If you cannot physically remove yourself from your daily routine today, think of a way that you can journey, however briefly, to someplace that isn’t quite in the eye of the storm. Groom a pet. Walk through a garden. Revisit the pictures from a relaxing and wonderful vacation. Put your swirling, troublesome thoughts on hold for a few minutes and let them be replaced by somewhere other and blessed, someplace of peace, tranquility, and gentle strength.<\/p>\n

I keep a kind of mental scrapbook of places and people that I’ve enjoyed in the past, and when times are difficult, I try to dust it off and leaf through it. By doing this, I remind myself that, although they might seem immediately onerous, “bad” days and times and problems do pass, and the “good” ones return! Yes, they do!<\/p>\n

Joy and peace,<\/p>\n

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

It’s TLC Tuesday again! And between last week and this week, so many more problems have cropped up in our world and in our lives. Large and small, these troubles can stir up a lot of fear, angst, worry, and dread. Sometimes, you might think it would be so nice to just “get away from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,1245],"tags":[151,1266,639,1182],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-positive","tag-bad-days","tag-getting-away","tag-good-times","tag-tlc-tuesday"],"yoast_head":"\nTLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy - 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\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s TLC Tuesday again! And between last week and this week, so many more problems have cropped up in our world and in our lives. Large and small, these troubles can stir up a lot of fear, angst, worry, and dread. Sometimes, you might think it would be so nice to just “get away from…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-07T01:16:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-02T18:25:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/03\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic5-246x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"It’s TLC Tuesday again! And between last week and this week, so many more problems have cropped up in our world and in our lives. Large and small, these troubles can stir up a lot of fear, angst, worry, and dread. Sometimes, you might think it would be so nice to just “get away from…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2014-10-07T01:16:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-02T18:25:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/03\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic5-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html","name":"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/03\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic5-246x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-07T01:16:02+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-02T18:25:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/03\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic5-246x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/03\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic5-246x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/10\/tlc-tuesday-flight-of-fancy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TLC Tuesday: Flight of Fancy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. 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\/1382","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=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1383,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}