{"id":1470,"date":"2014-12-08T22:49:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T22:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1470"},"modified":"2014-12-06T22:59:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T22:59:10","slug":"food-for-thought-revisiting-rudolph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/12\/food-for-thought-revisiting-rudolph.html","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought: Revisiting Rudolph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/05\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-697\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2013\/05\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"Maureen Pratt Author Pic\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>I feel a particular affinity for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, especially the claymation television special. It aired for the first time 50 years ago and has been a favorite for millions since. I even have a Christmas tree ornament depicting Rudolph, red nose all lit up!<\/p>\n<p>Rudolph has meant different things to me at different points in my life. As a child, it was the singing I recall most. As a young adult, I couldn&#8217;t wait until the strains of &#8220;There&#8217;s Always Tomorrow&#8221; began &#8211; and I&#8217;d sing along loudly! Now, since my lupus diagnosis and the health challenges that have followed, I&#8217;ve a deeper view of Rudolph. That is, the little reindeer with his physical anomaly, which made him different from all the other reindeer, struggling to find his place in the world &#8211; even running from the world at times &#8211; and finally discovering to everyone&#8217;s amazement that his &#8220;place&#8221; is most important at a time of great crisis. Almost as if at Rudolph&#8217;s weakest, his most different, he was at his strongest.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re living with serious health problems, this is something inspiring to think of. So often, we view our physical impediments as weaknesses. But if we dig deep, we just might find that they are completely the opposite &#8211; they are tremendous strengths! And we can use them to help ourselves and others!<\/p>\n<p>Good old\/young Rudolph! Even as I put away the ornaments this year, you&#8217;ll hear me singing &#8220;There&#8217;s Always Tomorrow!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I feel a particular affinity for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, especially the claymation television special. It aired for the first time 50 years ago and has been a favorite for millions since. I even have a Christmas tree ornament depicting Rudolph, red nose all lit up! Rudolph has meant different things to me at different&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,360,43,1242,4,578,379,1245,1247],"tags":[1388,119,1387,459,1389,1386,1385],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-goodness","category-lupus-2","category-positive","category-rising-above-tragedy","tag-being-of-help","tag-challenges","tag-finding-purpose","tag-health-challenges","tag-helping-in-a-crisis","tag-rudolph","tag-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Food for Thought: Revisiting Rudolph - 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\/12\/food-for-thought-revisiting-rudolph.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Food for Thought: Revisiting Rudolph - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I feel a particular affinity for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, especially the claymation television special. 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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 &amp; 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\/1470","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=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1471,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions\/1471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}