{"id":402,"date":"2013-01-17T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T06:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=402"},"modified":"2013-01-17T00:29:33","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T00:29:33","slug":"when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html","title":{"rendered":"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday, among the weekly supermarket circulars and coupons, there was a one-sheet announcement. A large nearby store, part of a chain that has been recently sold to another company, announced it was closing and would hold a “liquidation sale” beginning today (Wednesday). The announcement said there would be discounts of 10-90 percent, so it sounded like a very good\u00a0chance to pick up bargains, something that even those without chronic illness can appreciate. However, the experience was not quite as good or, rather, easy, as it sounded, and it leaves me thinking quite differently than\u00a0I did before I went shopping, reusable bags in hand.<\/p>\n

With nearly every available parking space taken, and only a few stray shopping carts in sight, I expected a buzz of activity when I went into the store. Quite the opposite; the atmosphere was subdued, more akin to a wake than a buying opportunity. There was plenty of produce, packaged foods, and other items,\u00a0and discount signs posted all around attested to the savings to be had. But as I walked the aisles, I heard snatches of conversations, customers speaking with store workers saying good-bye. They were sad exchanges. “I’m going to miss you.” “It won’t be the same.” A small huddle around the deli counter spoke about appreciation more than salami, and a woman shopping the meat department wished the butcher and his wife well and “hoped” to see them again sometime.<\/p>\n

I asked four separate employees if they would be employed by the company at another location. One said, “Yes.” One said, “No.” One said, “We don’t know yet,” and the fourth was silent until he bagged my last item. Then, he looked at me and said haltingly, “I worked for another store for 16 years. The same thing happened there. I don’t know anymore.” My heart ached.<\/p>\n

The closing of a grocery store or other business that has served a neighborhood for years does more than provide food and other items for daily living. It really does become a hub, a meeting place, a place where friendships are forged. No wonder the atmosphere was somber. And no wonder that, in other places, people are nursing sadness, loss, and the same kind of heartache I still feel as I type this.<\/p>\n

I told the employees I met today that I will pray for them, as I do all those good people who are finding their lives very difficult. As many of us with serious illness know, the loss of productivity is horribly hard to deal with, but I take comfort that prayer can unite us and give us strength, and that God does indeed care more for us than the sparrows and will hold us up and find other ways for our collective and individual lights to shine.\u00a0 Does that sound foolish? Naive? Immature? No. I have seen struggle turn to success and night turn into day. Nothing is impossible with God.<\/p>\n

Today, I got something more valuable than any “bargain” could bring. I got to\u00a0see how precious our good sense of fellowship is, how important it is to see beyond the superficial to find God’s grace, even on a bad day, and how much of an honor it is to be present to bring even a little of God’s love into an unexpected place.<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,
\nMaureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, among the weekly supermarket circulars and coupons, there was a one-sheet announcement. A large nearby store, part of a chain that has been recently sold to another company, announced it was closing and would hold a “liquidation sale” beginning today (Wednesday). The announcement said there would be discounts of 10-90 percent, so it sounded…<\/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-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day - 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\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday, among the weekly supermarket circulars and coupons, there was a one-sheet announcement. A large nearby store, part of a chain that has been recently sold to another company, announced it was closing and would hold a “liquidation sale” beginning today (Wednesday). The announcement said there would be discounts of 10-90 percent, so it sounded…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-17T06:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-17T00:29:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/01\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic7-246x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day - 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\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"Yesterday, among the weekly supermarket circulars and coupons, there was a one-sheet announcement. A large nearby store, part of a chain that has been recently sold to another company, announced it was closing and would hold a “liquidation sale” beginning today (Wednesday). The announcement said there would be discounts of 10-90 percent, so it sounded…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2013-01-17T06:00:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-17T00:29:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/01\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic7-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html","name":"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/01\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic7-246x300.jpg","datePublished":"2013-01-17T06:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-17T00:29:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/01\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic7-246x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2013\/01\/Maureen-Pratt-Author-Pic7-246x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/01\/when-a-good-day-is-also-a-bad-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When a Good Day Is Also a Bad Day"}]},{"@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\/402","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=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}