{"id":1583,"date":"2015-03-06T18:58:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T18:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2015-03-06T18:58:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T18:58:43","slug":"chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maureen<\/a>I know, I know! How well I know! It can be difficult to imagine that life with chronic illness is beautiful. Those of you living the life, you understand what I’m saying. Those who aren’t, well, I’ll spare you the sometimes ugly details! Suffice to say that secular society’s idea of beauty isn’t exactly what I’m referring to when I say, “Yes, there are beautiful things about life with chronic illness.”<\/p>\n

The beauty within a life of health challenges goes far beyond the superficial, all the way down to the core of the word that is both simple and profound: life. \u00a0The mysterious existence we have despite physical impediments that otherwise should make us curl up into a ball, the lovely moments when we put our face to the window and see the world outside, the way God’s handiwork is visible everywhere. These and other things are the beautiful aspects to our lives -yes, they are! And the more we appreciate them, and the other seemingly small things – an uplifting chat from friends, a mountain moved by a stranger (say, when we’re hoping for an earlier doc appointment). God’s grace that lifts us up when we’re most down. Yes, these things are beautiful, no matter who we appear physically.<\/p>\n

Yes, life with illness is hard and demanding. Yes, it brings pain and loss and obstacles when we least have the energy to surmount them.<\/p>\n

But, the beautiful thing about life is that it is a gift, from God, and that it dwells and is in us. And with it, we can enjoy the blessings that come, yes, with living and walking in faith.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

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

I know, I know! How well I know! It can be difficult to imagine that life with chronic illness is beautiful. Those of you living the life, you understand what I’m saying. Those who aren’t, well, I’ll spare you the sometimes ugly details! Suffice to say that secular society’s idea of beauty isn’t exactly what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1272,1422,360,4,1047,578,1420,1245,1236,95],"tags":[1155,1570,1569,1571,325,1572],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-praying-spirit-prayer-2","category-chronic-pain-and-the-holidays","category-determination","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-pain-2","category-positive","category-prayer-2","category-prayers","tag-beauty","tag-beauty-in-life","tag-beauty-in-suffering","tag-chronic-illness-and-beauty","tag-life","tag-walking-in-faith-with-illness"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life - 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\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I know, I know! How well I know! It can be difficult to imagine that life with chronic illness is beautiful. Those of you living the life, you understand what I’m saying. Those who aren’t, well, I’ll spare you the sometimes ugly details! Suffice to say that secular society’s idea of beauty isn’t exactly what…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-06T18:58:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life - 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\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"I know, I know! How well I know! It can be difficult to imagine that life with chronic illness is beautiful. Those of you living the life, you understand what I’m saying. Those who aren’t, well, I’ll spare you the sometimes ugly details! Suffice to say that secular society’s idea of beauty isn’t exactly what…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2015-03-06T18:58:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html","name":"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-03-06T18:58:43+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-06T18:58:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/04\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic1-246x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/03\/chronic-illness-the-beautiful-thing-about-life.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chronic Illness: The Beautiful Thing About Life"}]},{"@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\/1583","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=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1584,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions\/1584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}