Small Things

Have you ever had something minor get under your skin and lodge itself there with such determination that it was difficult to remove?  No, not literally under your skin, but instead something irritated your mood to the point that it lingered, causing everything else to become irritating?  That happened to me last week.  One silly little nothing (and I mean a silly little nothing) unexpectedly caught me off guard and turned into a bunch of little somethings, resulting in a less than patient mood.

I wanted to keep the attitude…and the attitude wanted to keep me.

“Choose your battles,” a trusted friend said to me the next day about a completely different situation, yet he was unknowingly addressing the silly little nothing that I was attempting to dissolve. “Yes, there are things that I see that bother me, but I focus on what’s important to me and don’t waste my energy on other things.”

Such wise words.

Later the same day, similar words were unexpectedly repeated during a completely different conversation with another person. He too was unknowingly addressing the silly little nothing that lodged itself into my thoughts.

I was beginning to get the message.

The next couple of days I was around people who stirred my creativity.  Being with these people completely dislodged the silly little nothing and caused me to refocus on the things that matter.

As a person who believes in not sweating the small stuff, I was completely caught off guard when a small thing shifted my world for a couple of days.  There are the sayings such as the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back or the little foxes that spoil the vine.  Small things have the potential to cause destruction. On the other hand, the largest trees grow from small seeds. Small things have the potential to produce life.  I was reminded to not take for granted the power of a small thing causing the largest amount of change.