Patterns of behavior...

Have you ever noticed patterns in your life?

A few days ago, upon a moment of reflection (and scanning of my phone book), I discovered that of the oh say six to eight men that I have found intriguing in the past few years, five of them (six, if you transcribe the Czech) not only have names which start with the same letter, BUT they also fall alphabetically in my phone book AND they're all Biblical names. There are times in which my life is down-right terrifying and simultaneously giddy in its "ah ha" moments...

Thankfully, this does not appear to be a pattern that I am bound to or stuck in...

But, while many of the patterns in my life are somewhat less than esoteric or permanently binding, still, I find myself falling into repeated patterns of behavior...

• I like breaking societal norms and expectations, and delight in shock value.
• I always drink at least two cups of coffee in the morning.
• I always do house cleaning on Saturdays.
• I don't wear shoes unless I absolutely have to.

... and that doesn't even begin to address my patterns of sin or patterns of unhealthy behaviors and mindsets.

Are patterns or habits a bad thing, in and of themselves?

No, absolutely not. But do they have the potential to become ruts of security or dependency, in which we become unable to change, grow, or adapt? Absolutely.

... a pattern of coffee drinking that becomes an addiction and "must-have-in-order-to-function."
... a pattern of doing things one way, that leaves one unable to culturally adapt or see the beauty of other peoples' ways of doing simple tasks.

More thoughts to follow on this later...