Am I seeing a pattern here...?

Just stopping in quickly between multiple loads of laundry and house cleaning.  Finally having some dry and sunny weather, albeit cold, after so much rain.  Winter here is mud season.

We have water again after three days, and we actually managed to squeeze in showers before going to Mass last night (I am so grateful).  It cost us month's worth of living expense money, but we got the new pump in, and it is so nice to be able to flush a toilet again.

The thing is, something BIG always seems to go right around the holidays.  Last year we also were without water for a time, but Bret managed to get it fixed.  The big thing was our van, which died on us while we were visiting friends.  The year before that, it was my oven that went dead on us.

I reread last year's post from December 7th, Meeting Him With Empty Hands, and so much of what I said makes such good sense.  But the year goes by, and we forget, and so we are destined to repeat the lesson over and over again.

Humility.  Trust.  Gratitude.  Those seem to be the lessons that I am supposed to be learning as we head into Advent each year.  Why am I so obtuse?

Anyway, I am filled, once again, with a sense of how lacking I am in humility, thinking that life should somehow be easier than it is.  I am aware of my lack of trust in God, and how much more my prayers are of petition and not thanksgiving.

But now I will give thanks...because I am aware, and perhaps repeating the lesson again this year, it may begin to sink in, and one day I will come to the Feast of the Nativity with a truly humble, trusting and grateful heart, one like Mary's.  And with a heart like hers, I can love her Son as she does: perfectly.