Hi, Caitie:)  - excellent post on an important part of being human.

Apparently your experience raising Italian pigs was quite thought-provoking:)

More seriously, your message that discouragement is part of the process, rather than an interruption of progress, is very important for us all to keep in mind.

Karen Kimsey-House recently shared this recipe in an interview around personal practices to keep us going through the messy and hard stuff:

1.  Do inspiring work
2.  Hang around with inspiring people
3.  Practice gratitude

I was struck by the order of these elements.  Work came first, which at first seemed wrong.  However, as I reflected further, I realized that our work is what we do and it is usually the largest part of our life.  Engaging in inspirational work often results in a stronger sense of purpose and value, simply because we are living for something beyond ourselves.   Everything else can flow naturally from that.

I enjoyed your post tremendously and am on my way over to visit The Lightning Notes:)

John