I am a part of this great online community of faith called "Epinoia Cafe" (www.epinoiacafe.com). Today, I found this posted there by a member of our online community that I only know by name, but hope to meet face-to-face one day soon. Her name is Cat and here is what she posted:
by Joan Chittister (30goodminutes.com):
Struggle changes us; it grows us up. It takes the dew off the rose and the gilt off the silver. It turns the fantasies of life into reality. But struggle does more than that. Struggle cultivates in us the kind of depth that comes from knowing pain as well as pleasure. After that we develop a vision in life as well as expectations. We have insight now as well as experience. We acquire understanding as well as endurance. We grow in compassion for others as well as we grow into character ourselves. Indeed, struggle not only transforms us, it makes us transforming as well.
Once we have truly struggled ourselves with something that stretches the elastic of the spirit, we are able to walk with others in their struggles, too…. When we know the meaning of what it is to struggle with something in life we have finally become human.

There are many parts of this that I completely resonate with, and many words that I hope to now associate with "struggle" - cultivate, depth, develop, vision, insight, experience, understanding, endurance, compassion, character, and transformation. But my favorite phrase from this passage would have to be "elastic of the spirit". I know in my own life, I often forget that my spirit truly is elastic. It has the ability to stretch, bounce back, stretch again, grow, and stretch some more.

I'm stretching right now. It isn't easy - at all. It isn't really even a whole lot of fun. But, easy and fun or not, it is still happening. And maybe that's ok.