You will find, in the effort to reach a higher spirituality in your
daily life, that the small things try your patience and your strength
more than the greater ones.
Home life, like business life, is composed of an accumulation of
trifles.
There are people who bear great sorrows with resignation, and seem to
gain a certain dignity and force of character through trouble, but who
are utterly vanquished by trivial annoyances.
The old-fashioned orthodox "Christian" was frequently of this order.
Death, poverty, and misfortune he bore without complaining, and became
ofttimes a more agreeable companion in times of deepest sorrow.
He regarded all such experiences as the will of God, and bowed to them.
Yet, if his dinner was late, his coffee below the standard, if his
eye-glasses were misplaced, or his toe trodden upon, he become a raging
lion, and his roar drove his affrighted household into dark corners.
There have been neighborhood Angels, who watched beside the dying
sinner, sustained orphans and widows, and endured great troubles
sublimely like martyrs. But if a dusty shoe trod upon a freshly washed
floor, or husband or child came tardily to the breakfast-table, or
lingered outside the door after regulation hour for retiring--lo, the
Angel became a virago, or a droning mosquito with persistent sting.
The New Philosophy demands serenity and patience through small trials,
as well as fortitude in meeting life's larger ills.
It demands, too, that we seek to avoid giving others unnecessary
irritation by a thoughtless disregard of the importance of trifles.
A man is more likely to keep calm if he wakes in the night and
discovers that the house is on fire, than he is if, on being fully
prepared to retire, he finds the only mug on the third story is missing
from his wash-stand, or the cake of toilet-soap he asked for the day
before has been forgotten.
A mother bears the affliction of a crippled child with more equanimity
than she is able to bring to bear upon the continual thoughtlessness of
a strong one.
To be kind, means to be thoughtful.
The kindest and most loving heart will sometimes forget and be
careless; but it cannot be perpetually forgetful and careless of
another's wishes and needs, even in the merest trifles.