Daily Question, September 20 What might be the gift in a chronically challenging situation I am facing? 28 Reflections Share Click here to cancel reply.Please log in or Create a Profile to post a comment. Notify me when someone replies to my comment via e-mail. Antoinette1 year agoAntoinetteWhen I see the word chronic I think of migraines that I have struggled with these past years. Although I have one today I haven’t had very many this month and I’m very grateful. The challenging situation is losing everything I had and starting over. But I guess I’m not alone in this boat. Others have done this before me so I can do it too. But what ? How do we make sense? Maybe it’s the pain that’s talking . 1 Reply Malag1 year agoMalagThe various long term challenges have helped bring me along a spiritual path. 1 Reply Stella1 year agoStellaFor me I think it is the gift of love and suffering. I believe suffering can help us to reach out to others in love. It can help us to tap into the pain of others. 1 Reply Don Jones1 year agoDon JonesWhen there is a sigh, followed by the statement, “Life is so hard”, I remind myself, “Compared to what?” 3 Reply DeVonna1 year agoDeVonnaI am in a relationship that is severed. I am estranged from my adult daughter and her husband and their two young children. My daughter has not spoken to us in five years. My grief over this estrangement has taught me how to pray for her, for her healing and happiness in life. Whether her life includes me or not, I only wish her well. This estrangement has been a gift, not one I would have chosen, but a gift nonetheless. It has deepened my powers of relinquishment. 4 Reply Michele1 year agoMicheleWishing you strength and healing. Thank you for your response. 0 Reply pkr1 year agopkr? 2 Reply Hot Sauce1 year agoHot SauceLately, I've been struggling a lot with obsessive questions about the afterlife and about whether all sins are forgivable. These questions are especially hard because they remind me of hard times I've had in the past. I sometimes wish I could just have easy answers. Nevertheless, the silver lining, I think, is that, when I become a pastor, I will have some useful tools to help other people struggling with similar questions and can offer wisdom to anyone struggling with questions about the afterl...Lately, I’ve been struggling a lot with obsessive questions about the afterlife and about whether all sins are forgivable. These questions are especially hard because they remind me of hard times I’ve had in the past. I sometimes wish I could just have easy answers. Nevertheless, the silver lining, I think, is that, when I become a pastor, I will have some useful tools to help other people struggling with similar questions and can offer wisdom to anyone struggling with questions about the afterlife or forgiveness. Read More6 Reply Arleen1 year agoArleenThis question reminds me of the movie Ground Hog Day. Bill Murray woke up every day with the same things happening. He had to learn from each event before he could move on to Feb. 3. That is what I think the gift is of chronically challenging situations. We are given the chance to learn from the situation. How to handle it, how to deal with, or maybe even change it. 9 Reply Mica1 year agoMicaGround Hog Day – thanks, Arleen. I forgot Bill Murray was learning in the process. It sounds like a movie to watch again. 3 Reply Zenith1 year agoZenithI can continue to look for the positive in spite of everything. Continue my practice of gratitude, meditation and Tai Chi. Continue to read and learn. The gift is to keep trying to cheer other people up. It takes stamina and commitment to do that. 5 Reply Javier Visionquest1 year agoJavier VisionquestBeyond the decade of alcoholic neglect and dilapidation, beneath my wife’s and my clutter we’ve dragged around the Old Dominion with us for the last dozen years since the Great Housing Swindle of 2008, we’re uncovering the space in this house to make a home again. It’s like unwrapping a gift one little stack of unloved junk, one box at a time. 4 Reply Mica1 year agoMicaBummer about 2008, Javier! Thank heavens you’re making a home now. Warm wishes – 3 Reply Michele1 year agoMicheleMy gift today is that 31 years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who I love very much. I’m so glad he lives here in Florida and we are going through the pandemic together. My girls are in separate states and it is hard. It is true… a mother and son share are unique strong bond. I am incredibly proud of him and the man he has become and feel very lucky today as I look back at my 31 yr memories. 10 Reply Mica1 year agoMicaMichele – I love the book, “Mothers and Sons, Fathers and Daughters.” I gave it to my son when he had his 2nd daughter and last child. 3 Reply Michele1 year agoMicheleThanks – I’ll have to look that up:) 0 Reply devy1 year agodevyAcceptance of my physical situation. For years I was very physically active. Having been an athlete and playing Football at university, I had a deep commitment and sense of being and keeping in shape. When I was in my early 40s I developed knee problem that hindered my running. Luckily I was a swimmer so I got back into swimming as well as biking. I also maintained my weight tracing routine. When I reached my 50s, I developed shoulder, hip and Lower back problems. I also developed arrhythmia whi...Acceptance of my physical situation. For years I was very physically active. Having been an athlete and playing Football at university, I had a deep commitment and sense of being and keeping in shape. When I was in my early 40s I developed knee problem that hindered my running. Luckily I was a swimmer so I got back into swimming as well as biking. I also maintained my weight tracing routine. When I reached my 50s, I developed shoulder, hip and Lower back problems. I also developed arrhythmia which affected my training. I had a second ablation this June which knock on wood, seems to solve my afib. I tried getting back into doing run, walk intervals and weights but my physical ailments have returned. I am realizing that going for long walks and doing simple calesthetics is my limit. I am learning to adapt. I am finally accepting my limits, particularly when I think about others who I know and their own personal health struggles. Some are worse off. Some have left this world. I try to be grateful for what I CAN DO! Read More6 Reply DeVonna1 year agoDeVonna“I am finally accepting my limits,”…thank you for that! Yes, we grow when we realize to accept ourselves as we are, and where we are. Good for you! 2 Reply Melissa1 year agoMelissaThoroughness. In thinking it through. I can be a perfectionist and I can feel rushed(in this world)when it’s a challenge it takes more time therefore I have to take the time to think it through and it gives me the opportunity to practice patience. Also if I feel like I need something more to talk to God about I can talk to him about it and to me just being able to talk to him feels like a gift. 5 Reply Howie Geib1 year agoHowie GeibI always need to be very careful at the end of the month economically. I cut it real close with very little room for error. And yet, somehow, it always works out (even though the hull scrapes the bottom once in a while). It is a thing I am grateful about already, but in terms of a ‘gift’ I think it is knowing that I am not taking on more than needed. I am not ‘accumulating,’ which, for me, is a waste of resources and energy. Not putting too much in the metaphorical back pack…no checked...I always need to be very careful at the end of the month economically. I cut it real close with very little room for error. And yet, somehow, it always works out (even though the hull scrapes the bottom once in a while). It is a thing I am grateful about already, but in terms of a ‘gift’ I think it is knowing that I am not taking on more than needed. I am not ‘accumulating,’ which, for me, is a waste of resources and energy. Not putting too much in the metaphorical back pack…no checked baggage. Read More2 Reply Kevin1 year agoKevinI have been living and coping with chronic back pain now for eleven years, even after more treatments than I can count. I have yet to see the “gift” in this situation. Other chronic situations beg the question, what can be done, if possible, to change the equation, thereby mitigating, altering, or removing what it is that is chronic? When something is chronically challenging, which I take to be unpleasant, painful, or hurtful, I don’t sit around looking for gifts in the situation, I look f...I have been living and coping with chronic back pain now for eleven years, even after more treatments than I can count. I have yet to see the “gift” in this situation. Other chronic situations beg the question, what can be done, if possible, to change the equation, thereby mitigating, altering, or removing what it is that is chronic? When something is chronically challenging, which I take to be unpleasant, painful, or hurtful, I don’t sit around looking for gifts in the situation, I look for solutions and when possible, exits. Read More3 Reply Present Moment1 year agoPresent MomentI, too live with chronic pain. What it has given me is gratitude. I cannot be negative when I’m in gratitude. 3 Reply Mica1 year agoMicaCongrats, Amor fati – I admire your attitude*. Hugs to you and the other sufferers of chronic pain and the sufferers of other things! * “Attitude of Gratitude”? ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ 2 Reply Judith1 year agoJudithPraying for you, Kevin! 3 Reply ABC1 year agoABCThe gift might be in the wrapping, or the ribbon. The wrapping might be to ask, what is the worst thing that could happen here? The ribbon might be being open to that but not attached to it. 4 Reply Pollyanna Gladwell1 year agoPollyanna GladwellThank you for this, ABC. The analogy you use of the gift being in the wrapping and the ribbon reminds me that, so often, children play with more pleasure with the box that the toy came in than with the toy itself. It’s all in one’s perception as to what is and what isn’t a gift. In so many good stories, challenges have to be overcome before a goal can be attained. And stories – good and bad – remind me of that most valuable of all gifts – imagination. Currently my only chr...Thank you for this, ABC. The analogy you use of the gift being in the wrapping and the ribbon reminds me that, so often, children play with more pleasure with the box that the toy came in than with the toy itself. It’s all in one’s perception as to what is and what isn’t a gift. In so many good stories, challenges have to be overcome before a goal can be attained. And stories – good and bad – remind me of that most valuable of all gifts – imagination. Currently my only chronically challenging situation is being human – it hurts so often. No one gets through it without sorrow. And with sorrow I need to find a way back to joy and usually I just have to Stop Look and Go to find gratefulness and then joy naturally follows. I may be wrong* but I think it was Thomas Merton who wrote the prayer: ”Thank You for all you have given me; thank You for all You have taken from me; thank You for all you have left me.” Gratefulness is embodied in this. * Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong! Blessings. Read More0 Reply Mark Featherstone1 year agoMark Featherstonethe gift might be – the opportunity to practice patience – to build endurance – and even calmness and composure in life’s difficulties… chronically challenging situations give me time, I’d never thought of them in this way, (thank you for the question) 9 Reply Kevin1 year agoKevinAnd I find your response to today’s question, Mark, enlightening! Thank you very much. 5 Reply My Private Gratitude Journal Write an entry in your private gratefulness journal Get Started This site is brought to you by A Network for Grateful Living, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. All donations are fully tax deductible in the U.S.A. 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