Our spiritual struggle begins right now with whatever God has given us (and all the more if we ourselves have gotten into a difficult situation!) About your trials: most of them are natural parts of life, and God allows several of them to pile up because you are capable of bearing them… You must learn to suffer and bear – but do not view this as something "endless and dreary," here you are wrong: God sends many consolations, and you will know them again. You must learn to find joy in the midst of increasing doses of sorrow; thus you can save your soul and help others. ~Fr. Seraphim Rose

thanks Arielle, I read this off of your site. something i needed to hear today...I took someone to the hospital who was super sick and needed to get a CD4 count check (shes HIV positive) and she couldn't even walk...it was hard and difficult for her to make it through the tests we took her to today. ah, I was cringing looking at her pained face when they were drawing her blood...she was talking slowly and was so tired...but later she expressed her happiness, i got a coke for her and she was so excited and she needed assistance drinking it slowly so that she took tiny sips, she may have drunk a third till we got her home...anyway despite her pain and tiredness she was doing alright and started to joking a bit...and her smile was gorgeous. she 31 years old but she looks like she may be 50. i hope and pray she can improve now. another woman who came with us was doing super well, someone didn't believe she was even sick...so there are always hard hard things every day, but usually something good, encouraging immerges somehow. praise God.