Each one of us has different challenges. Life is made of daily challenges.

        For those who cannot move their legs, to go from the bed to the wheelchair, each morning, is a challenge.

        For those who suffered accidents and are re-learning to walk, the challenge is to support themselves on the bars in the rehab center and try to move one foot, then the other.

        For those who lost their vision, the great challenge is to adapt to this new reality, learning to hear, to touch, to move around obstacles without bumping into them. It is to learn a new alphabet, to read with the fingertips, to acquire a new independency of movements and actions.

        For the analphabet adult, the greatest challenge is to master those signs that mean letters and, put side by side, make words, which make sentences.

        It is to take the pencil and write their own name, in capital letters. It is to be able to read the sign on the bus, identifying the one to take to go home.

        Each one, in their own reality, their own experience, will indicate what constitutes their greatest challenge: to master painting techniques, sculpture, music or dance.

        To be an ace at a sport; to be the first student of their class; to pass the SATs; to pass the exam that will guarantee a good job; to be accepted by society; to be loved.

         To overcome a challenge it is necessary to have discipline, to be persistent and diplomatic, to know hot to forgive oneself and others.

         It is to be an optimist when others are pessimists and a realist when others think about the moon. It is to know how to dream and go on.

         It is to persist, even if no one can imagine us as a Chemistry Nobel Prize winner, a father, a teacher, mayor or programmer.

        Above all, the greatest challenge for the handicapped, the black and the white, Japanese and Americans, Brazilians and Argentineans, for every human being, is to do something.

         To do what we promise. To take the first step, and the second and the third. To move forward.

        It is very frequent to hear people say that they will go on a diet, they will study more, they will exercise everyday, they will read more, they will watch less television, they will…

        To talk, to complain or to criticize are the most popular hobbies in the world, losing only to, maybe, blaming others for anything that happens.

        Therefore, the greatest challenge it to do something. And it is no use to say that whatever you intended to do did not work out because you are blind, or because you are black or yellow, or because you are Brazilian, or because you live in a yellow house or because you did not have time.

         Learn from your mistakes. When something goes wrong, you can try it in a different way. Now you know the first way does not work.

        You can practice more. You can get help, study more, get inspiration from wise friends or with your friends’ friends.

        You can try new ideas. You can divide your objective in many steps and try one at a time, instead of trying it all at once.

        You can do anything you want except feel sorry for yourself. You can never give up on your dreams.

*   *   *

         Problems are challenges. Difficulties are tests for spiritual promotion.

         Failure is a perfectly natural occurrence that happens to each and every creature.

         It is indispensible to keep a good spirit in every place and position.

        The worst that can happen to someone is to give in to hopelessness, killing their inner flame of faith and having to walk in total darkness.

        Thus, trust in God and, with courage, move on with a peaceful heart.
 

Spiritist Moment  Team, based on a letter signed by
Fernando Botelho and addressed
to a blind man named Juliano, who lived in Curitiba,
Paraná, Brazil and on chapter 9 of the book Convites da vida,
psychographed by Divaldo Pereira Franco,
by the Spirit Joanna de Ângelis, Leal Publishing House.
December 22.2008.