Years ago there was a song “Little Things Mean a Lot”. Today I was thinking about that; how much it’s the little things which do mean a lot, but because they are “little” we often overlook them and their importance. Early on in my sobriety I remember someone saying that it wasn’t the rocks or boulders we encounter in climbing a mountain which give us difficulties, but the grain of sand in our shoe, which wears us down.
Last night we were reading a story at the BB meeting. In it the man telling his story said he had difficulty in understanding a spiritual experience, because he believed he had never had one. When his fellow alcoholics questioned him, he said he had never had a flash of light. They questioned him further and he admitted that he had had a few drinks on a flight on a plane. He said, while he was sitting there, having these drinks, he remembered the large coin he had in his pocket, which he had received for his ninety days in the program. He said he took it out and looked at it and had this sudden realization that what others had told him in AA was true, which was that he was powerless over alcohol. He then realized how right they were. The men pointed out to him that it was really a spiritual experience. He knew that then. But it seemed to not be that at the time.
I had another friend, who was marooned in a boat on a large lake. His engine had cut out and he had no oars to row to safety. After hours in the hot sun, another boat came along and gave him a tow to land. While the man, who had rescued him, said to him that he looked like he needed a beer. My friend said he said “yes”, but it came out of his mouth, “no thanks”. He said he was startled by that, because he knew he had said yes, but he heard himself refusing the drink.
Who would have thought that as a spiritual experience? Such a commonplace moment. Little in comparison to everything else.
This is true of the reverse. Little irritations in our day, which we pass over, but which add up to a mountain, after a week or more of ignoring their influence on us. They seem to have no importance at the end of the day and they pass over into the next day, when we are bothered by something else, which we ignore, but which is added to the one from the day before, and then in time we have a whole bunch of these things, which have piled up and suddenly come crashing down on us. The grain of sand in our shoe, wearing us down.
Meetings and talking to others can put the light on these hidden things. The little things. Like the man, who thought he hadn’t had a spiritual experience. Left to our own thinking, we overlook their importance. We become restless, irritable, and discontented. We may be so irritable that we stop going to meetings and talking to others. We can end up like a man I heard talking a week ago. He had stopped going to meetings and at dinner one night he felt a glass of wine couldn’t hurt him. It sounded good and he took it. He was coming back after an extended period of drinking.
Just thinking about the little things I often overlook.
Don’t get soaked. Take a quick peak at the forecast