{"id":2022,"date":"2016-04-20T17:04:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T17:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=2022"},"modified":"2016-04-18T17:15:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T17:15:12","slug":"chronic-illness-and-pain-darkness-can-bring-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/04\/chronic-illness-and-pain-darkness-can-bring-light.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness and Pain:  Darkness Can Bring Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2016\/04\/Robs-Dodo-Bird-smaller.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2023\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2016\/04\/Robs-Dodo-Bird-smaller-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Rob's Dodo Bird smaller\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>My gift for growing things, especially African Violets, is a true blessing, especially on the days when I feel low, am experiencing a lot of pain, and just need to cocoon. I&#8217;m also finding some important lessons from my plants, and one that I learned recently is quite, well, illuminating (pardon the pun!).<\/p>\n<p>Turns out that one of the best ways to bring out the beauty of variegated foliage (leaves that have green, cream, white, and even pink coloring) is to put the plant in a dark place for several days! Yes, darkness can coax great &#8211; and vastly enjoyable &#8211; beauty out of an otherwise ordinary plant!<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it the same for us, too? We face so many challenges each day, many of which would ordinarily make us quite despondent. But when we approach these tough times with faith and keep God&#8217;s love foremost in our hearts, we soon see that even the darkest ordeal has glimmers of beautiful, uplifting light. A kind stranger. A turn for the better in our condition. An insight into Scripture or other aspect of our deep spiritual underpinnings. Even the taste of a savory or sweet food that makes us think, &#8220;Yum!&#8221; instead of &#8220;Yuk!&#8221; All of these and more are not confined to only the better times &#8211; we can experience them at all times, if we seek them out.<\/p>\n<p>The picture above is of one of my plants that recently won a blue ribbon &#8211; and a prize for its varieagated folidage. It was a wonderful boost to my spirit to see this little plant on the &#8220;big&#8221; award table. And that boost, added to the many blessings that come even with the pain, remind me each day that God is awesome &#8211; and even darkness can bring light!<\/p>\n<p>Joy and peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My gift for growing things, especially African Violets, is a true blessing, especially on the days when I feel low, am experiencing a lot of pain, and just need to cocoon. I&#8217;m also finding some important lessons from my plants, and one that I learned recently is quite, well, illuminating (pardon the pun!). Turns out&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1272,3,360,43,1242,4,1047,578,1420,1245,1236,95,1247,1246],"tags":[111,2108,44,2109,2107,183,149,123,2106,172],"class_list":["post-2022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-praying-spirit-prayer-2","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-pain-2","category-positive","category-prayer-2","category-prayers","category-rising-above-tragedy","category-uplifting","tag-african-violets","tag-chronic-illness-and-darkness","tag-chronic-pain","tag-chronic-pain-and-darkness","tag-darkness","tag-gods-love","tag-healing","tag-light","tag-light-in-darkness","tag-peace"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chronic Illness and Pain: Darkness Can Bring Light - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How can we find beautiful light in our dark moments?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness and Pain: Darkness Can Bring Light - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How can we find beautiful light in our dark moments?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/04\/chronic-illness-and-pain-darkness-can-bring-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-20T17:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-18T17:15:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2016\/04\/Robs-Dodo-Bird-smaller-225x300.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 and Pain: Darkness Can Bring Light - 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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\/2022","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=2022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}