Saturday, May 9, 2009

When It Rains It Pours - Thankfully

Last night the thermostat on our HVAC decided to pitch a fit. It wouldn't do what it is supposed to do - like turn down the ac when I want it colder. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except that it is just one more thing on my current list of things to do.

For instance, on Friday, Terry the roof man confirmed my suspicions that our 15-year-old roof is terminal and needs to be replaced. We're waiting for the rain to stop awhile so the cement guy can pour the new footing so that the sun room won't have water seep in. The sprinkler guy is supposed to return this week so that the broken/ineffective sprinklers can be fixed. I retrieved Maribeth's repaired car on Monday only to take Molly's broken car in on Friday. I know it is the rainy season in Nashville, but is it also the broke-down season?

It would be easy to sink into a pity party, wondering why everything has to be having problems and be in need of repair. But the truth is, this current time of disrepair is minuscule in comparison to the time that these broken things are working well and performing as expected. In fact, most of the time, everything goes along swimmingly, to which I rarely pay attention. It's only when I'm inconvenienced that I notice. And should there be more than one thing with problems, I assume the whole world is falling apart.

But it's not. It's just that sometimes things wear out or break down or fall apart. Things get fixed or I get a new one. Soon everything is up and running again and I go back to oblivious ingratitude. Maybe that's why things should break - so I will have the opportunity to realize how good my life is and how blessed I am.

So the next time I experience a rainy season of malfunction, I'll use it as a time of thankfulness. After all, if I didn't have those things, they wouldn't break and they wouldn't need fixing. And most of the time, my life is much easier because I have them.

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