I want to share a story a friend told me. She’s been down in the dumps for a while and on New Year’s Eve, she held an 8-month-old baby born to a drug-addicted woman. My friend wrote me, “I held this baby, humming to her and watching her drift off to sleep…It really moved me to realize that as the ball dropped I was gazing at this beautiful child who started 2014 in tremendous pain through no fault of her own and by the grace of God found a new start…”

The people who cross our path are there for a reason. My friend held that baby and learned a spiritual lesson. We don’t always understand the boulders we’re meant to carry, the fjords we’re meant to cross, the mountains we must climb.

And like that little baby, we’ll all have our share of sorrows and challenges. Maybe not that extreme, of course, but we each have ups and downs: they’re part of our life’s story. It’s up to us to find a way to see the spiritual lessons within each experience. That’s our homework. There are no shortcuts to feeling better. But every day, we can do one thing to take care of ourselves, just like my friend comforted that little baby.

Being aware and trying to live our lives as fully as possible is our daily assignment.