{"id":2151,"date":"2016-11-08T23:52:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T23:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=2151"},"modified":"2016-11-08T23:52:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T23:52:44","slug":"comfort-for-election-day-and-afterward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/11\/comfort-for-election-day-and-afterward.html","title":{"rendered":"Comfort for Election Day and Afterward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2152\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2016\/11\/P1040770-800x628-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"P1040770 (800x628)\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" \/>What did I do on Election Day, besides vote? I did something that brings me a sense of accomplishment and offers benefits for days to come. I made chicken soup! This simple food is traditionally associated with warmth, calm, and healing, and I thought Election Day provided the perfect opportunity to serve up some comfort!<\/p>\n<p>I set the soup up in my slow cooker and soon the delicious aroma wafted throughout my home. I was very calm as I prepared to brave the lines at the polling place (nearly an hour wait!). When I arrived back home, the scent of soup cheered me. And when I allowed myself a taste test, I knew good things were to come.<\/p>\n<p>The effect of chicken soup reminds us\u00a0that it&#8217;s a good idea to do calming, healing things when the world around us seems very roiled. The recipe was a combination of ideas gleaned from a few cookbooks and a good helping of my own additions. A little of this, a little of that and the result was delightful.<\/p>\n<p>If you still feel stress from the political season that&#8217;s passed, or if you feel like you need a deep breath before the hectic holidays, don&#8217;t feel guilty. Feel blessed that there are things like soft sofas, and beautiful fall days to enjoy! There is the fellowship of good friends. There is a wonderful season of light to come, and there is always a warm bowl of good, homemade chicken soup to enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>We never know when something will happen that causes stress. But if we&#8217;re prepared &#8211; with strong faith, a willingness to relax, and a bit of chicken soup &#8211; we&#8217;ll get through resiliently! I&#8217;m going to stow away individual portions of soup in my freezer. If you want my recipe, just ask!<\/p>\n<p>Peace to all,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What did I do on Election Day, besides vote? I did something that brings me a sense of accomplishment and offers benefits for days to come. I made chicken soup! This simple food is traditionally associated with warmth, calm, and healing, and I thought Election Day provided the perfect opportunity to serve up some comfort!&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Comfort for Election Day and Afterward - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\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=\"Comfort for Election Day and Afterward - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What did I do on Election Day, besides vote? 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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\/2151","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=2151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2153,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2151\/revisions\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}