At Least Your Hair

 'So long as God's Providence does not send you these great and heavy afflictions,
so long as He does not ask your eyes, at least give Him your hair.
Take patiently the petty annoyances,
the trifling discomforts,
the unimportant losses which come upon all of us daily;
for by means of these little matters, lovingly and freely accepted,
you will give him your whole heart, and win His.
I mean the acts of daily forbearance; 
the headache, or toothache, or heavy cold;
the tiresome peculiarities of husband or wife,
the broken glass, the loss of a ring, a handkerchief, a glove;
the sneer of a neighbor,
the effort of going to bed early in order to rise early for prayer or Communion,
the little shyness some people feel in openly performing religious duties;
and be sure that all of these sufferings, small as they are, if accepted lovingly, are most pleasing to God's goodness,
which has promised a whole ocean of happiness to His children in return for one cup of cold water. And, moreover, inasmuch as these occasions are forever rising, they give us a fertile field for gathering in spiritual riches, if only we will use them rightly.'

St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

Painting: Guy Orlando Rose, Warm Afternoon, 1910