Everyone has a mountain to climb

hi again,
I read a post by a friend of mine on her blog and she posted an amazing post which got me thinking. The title of this post is something that I say all the time and I would like to explain it. Quite often when I describe stuff I have been through, people start saying sorry you had to go through that and some are basically short of saying poor you. Funny because I don't feel that way! lol So my response to people is that everyone has a mountain or mountains to climb and overcome and this is mine. I also say that I don't like people feeling sorry for me because I am perfectly capable myself if I wanted to and I don't need anyone else doing it for me. I don't feel sorry for myself...most of the time. lol I am not perfect and sometimes I look at my life and wish it were different but then I remember all of the strength I have gained by going through the obstacles in my life. I wear my obstacles that I have overcome in a way as a badge to say that I have gotten through them. I really get annoyed when people say that "I wish I had their life-they have everything and have it all together and life is so easy for them" Please. This is where my saying comes in again. EVERYONE has obstacles and no one is immune to them. Just because a person looks together doesn't mean they have it together. Their life may be falling apart and they may be going through huge stuff but they choose to look together to everyone else. The person who complains their life is not as easy as others may look like they have it together too. Something I have noticed is how we seem to like to hide our problems and appear to have it together to the rest of the world and it seems to be a natural thing to do. I have done it. I spent 1.5yrs having terrible stomach spasms when ever I ate and I was on up to like 7 different meds to control the pain just so I could appear to have it together and not worry other people. Some of my closest friends never even knew. My reasons were because I see how other people have stuff going on and I didn't want them to worry about me on top of their stuff too. One had just has MS, another was going through marital issues, another was going through cancer and another was dealing with other stuff and so on. I have something that people call a gift and I can feel emotions from other people that are not always visible to others and almost everyone is going through something. I think alot of times people get so caught up in everything they are going through that they are unable to see the obstacles that others are facing also. Sometimes the obstacle is visible and other times it isn't. If we sit down and give up because we think our lives are awful, what kind of life is that? I tell those people sometimes to look at someone else or watch the news and it doesn't take long to find a person that has worse problems than that person. I do it myself when I get down. I look at someone else and realize my life isn't so bad and I can totally keep going and perservering. Then I look back and see the mountain I have climbed and overcome and it gives me a sense of pride. I also see that through the obstacle that I didn't just lay down and give up and that I kept living my life the best I could. I am not perfect and sometimes I need encouragement from my friends because sometimes I lose sight of things but then I get back on track and keep pushing on. I am writing this as encouragement and I hope it comes across as such also. One last thought. Years ago I got to a low point and I realized I had two choices, I could lay down and give up and just live that way or I could get up and not let my obstacles win and take my life away and cause regret later in life. I of course chose the second because I can't imagine missing out on all life has to offer because of an obstacle I am facing. I may be limited in what I can enjoy but it doesn't mean that I can't enjoy anything at all. Life always has struggles and is never easy and we can't stop living each time one comes up. We need to re evaluate our plans and keep living. Thanks for listening.