Yesterday morning I woke up with a sharp little pain in my right thumb. I couldn't figure out what was causing it and it wasn't bad enough to make me want to do anything about it, so I just ignored it, hoping it would go away.
This morning it was still there, more painful and a little red and inflamed.
This evening I finally realized it was a splinter, so tiny I could barely see it. I found a pair of tweezers (don't you love that word?) and a needle and went to work. It didn't take very long before I had it out.
It was so small I had a hard time believing it had caused me so much pain, or indeed, any pain at all.
And that led me to think about how many things we allow into our lives, give permission to to make us suffer - things which are not worthy of us, things which, by any standard, are small and insignificant and easy to remove (tweezers, forsooth, a needle).
I took that little splinter out and the pain vanished. Just like that - that's all it took. I want to remember this. Some things are not worth the pain.
By Little and By Little: stories of incremental change for people with special needs in India
2 comments:
Yes, tiny thing can be of great annoyance.. Grace had a "tiny thing" in her foot today. A splinter from somewhere in our kitchen floor. She claimed it really hurt but somehow it didn't hurt at gym. She came home and howled every time her foot touched the floor and looked to me for sympathy. Which she received. Then, I drove her to gymnastcs where she proceeded to out do her classmates
"Tweezers" is a fantastic word! As are "thorough" and "oligarchy."
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