Sharing with others daily words, thoughts and meditations that bring myself hope and renewal during my own daily battles and frustrations with COPD/Asthma.  Sharing, because as we all know – without that horizon of hope, our daily renewal of faith and fight can dim in a hurry.

Take, read, meditate and hopefully find some of the same hope in your daily battles with a chronic illness and/or disability as I have within mine….

The Word – “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet they are fed.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to their life?”  (Matthew 6:25-27, NIV)

The Thought – How many can honestly say they do not worry about their future with a chronic illness and/or disability?

The real question may be – how many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years will you truly add to your life by worrying about what is ahead today or tomorrow?

I have yet to meet anybody that was truly able to describe the days ahead with complete accuracy and no matter how much I have tried to plan ahead, most times something comes along and puts a bump in that road called the future and many times those bumps propel the travels along a whole different path.

For those of us with daily battles of chronic illness and/or disability, know that planning ahead most times seems futile as bumps always arise in the road ahead to cause anywhere from a minor change in plan or direction, to a complete overhaul of the road ahead.

While some may scoff at the idea of a greater creator than ourselves, one can not help but wonder and reflect at times on just how the heck we got to the point we are at with food in our tummies, clothes on our back and air to inhale and savor.

Many, if not most, that I know or have had conversations with can literally reflect on moments, days or months in which their life was seemingly hanging by a thread and yet there was food to eat, clothing to put on and travels to take.  Some of those folks will claim it was their choices that both got them there and brought out of there as well, while others just sigh and recall how something, somewhere or someone appeared and set changes in motion to get out of those times of worry over the moment, the day and the future.

When we take our time each day to have a conversation and quiet time with the ‘Great Spirits’, do we not, as if talking to our best friend, reflect on those moments and then question those next moments and days.  As with all relationships, we first must remember to be thankful for what we have surrounding us in our travels of life, then like a child ask or request for guidance and a sense of direction and as a child allowing their worry to be carried by the parent, we can allow our worry to be given to the ‘Great Spirits’ for they will know what we need, when we need and how we will get it.

All worry is good at building is blood pressure, anxiety, stress, fear and loss of two of the main ingredients to life and happiness – hope and faith.

Stop and reflect on those times when you allowed your hope and faith to gain a negative or worry attitude toward the remains of the day, tomorrow and next week – and then reflect on how those hopes worked out.  But when we stop and reflect on those times when our hope and faith was built on just that without any worry or negativity, odds are we find better things did so happen and begin.

Be like the birds or a child, do not worry about the moments, days, weeks, months or years ahead and concentrate on the here and now – that is the time to work with your chronic illness and/or disability.

The Meditation/Prayer – Oh ‘Great Spirits’, we come to you and be humble as we say thanks for the awesome wonders of life that surround us each and every moment of our travels.  We lay the process of worry at your feet, not as a gift but as a reflection on that which we do not really know – the moments ahead in today, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.  Let us be like the birds and children, allowing you to build on the four fundamentals of life and happiness – using hope, faith, love and grace as the access to what lies ahead today, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.

And we all say Hallelujah, Amen.

(Copyright@2017, CrossDove Writer – This writing may not be reused in any manner without written permission.)

(More ‘Living 4 Today’ writings can be found at either wheezingaway.com or on Facebook at COPD Travels.)