The Important Trifles
ou 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 with-
out 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 the
tow trodden upon, he became 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 or-
phans 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 regulating hour for retir-
ing--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 forti-
tude 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 some-
times forget and be careless; but it cannot be
perpetually forgetful and careless of another's
wishes and needs, even in the merest trifles.
The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Chicago : The Psychic Research Company, c1902.
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