Good morning, would you like a side of failure with your pancakes?

As human beings, we look, always, for progress, progress, progress. Some way to make things better, some indication that things will be easier, that we know more. Even in our personal lives, we want to see that life is better, easier than before.

But throughout history, all we see is loop after loop of the same kinds of human patterns, the same general actions, the same mistakes, the same attempts at fixing them, the same failures and successes, and again, we repeat ourselves.

Unfortunately, it happens so much in our lives individually, as well.

How many times have I forgotten to bring my contacts case with me on trips I have the potential to fall asleep during? Every time, I swear, I'll never have to wake up to dry contacts again. And yet, I still only remember it occasionally.

How many times do we misplace keys, wash chapstick, tie impossible knots in our shoes?

How many times do we make the same social mistakes, alienating acquaintances, making enemies of friends, botching attempts at asking for more than friendship, ruining situations that were previously fantastic, with no chance of reconciliation?

Are we doomed to continue these awful habits, fated to walk the same paths over and over? It's insanity!

And beyond that, how many times do things beyond our own control follow the same patterns? It's a scary thing to contemplate, that maybe our lives continue in an uncontrollable circle, that we will face the same situations again and again, and that we will make the same choices again and again, make the same success or the same mistake, always haunted by the one series of events, marred only by different people, different settings, perhaps different details, but still a general idea that has happened before.

Are we, as weak mortals, capable of making a different decision? are we capable of finding success where we've failed before? It has happened before! It is not impossible!

So will I, in the face of a situation I have faced more than once before, make the same mistakes, and yet again lose something I cherish and hold so very dear? I can only pray and hope to know how to do what I have never done before, and to succeed where I already seem to be failing again.

Those of you who do so, I could use your prayer.