Day 3 – Small Steps

Three things small steps teach us:

Serenity lies in small steps,  taken daily,  to effect lasting change

Change is inevitable.  I can direct that change by small steps only.

Small collaborative steps are action; large single steps are reaction.

I know my thinking is distorted when in my pain I fantasize about taking a large step, a huge action that solves my problems. I have turned my back, however briefly, upon my real world and occupied self-deception. I have lost who I am.

I didn’t do huge things in my life. I breathed small breaths, walked or ran with single steps. I spoke single words and signed my life away one letter at a time. I accumulated small steps in the present to encourage great diversion in the future. That’s what I did. That’s what I still do. That’s all I can do.

There are some small steps that I took that led to profound change. Looking back at them, when they were simply made without thought, they typically led to disaster. One bad word at the wrong moment permanently hurt my son. One flying fist, just one, forever destroyed trust. I did that. Me. Just like that. With one small wrong action.

Other small steps, many other small steps, led to greatly positive changes. Almost always, they built on prior small steps. Almost always, they were aimed at addressing my own faults. Almost always, they succeeded.

These daily reflections, these small steps, they work together. Read on until you see the themes emerge, the patterns develop, until you see yourself reflected here in all your glory and wonder and agony.

Take the small steps to the mirror.

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