Flat

I knew my bike tire was flat. It wasn't a big flat. It was one of those that slowly leaks out. Fill it up, and you can go for a few more days but then it goes down again. I finally went out to change it today and then I noticed something about my car tire. Somewhat flat. Not a big flat, it just looked like some air had slowly leaked out.
Changing the bike tire proved kind of daunting. After going round and round, I finally discovered what had caused the subtle flat, a super-tiny metal spike. So small, so thin, I'm surprised I found it. But I if hadn't had found it, I wonder how many more inner tubes would I have gone through. Riding day after day and losing all that air so slowly. Pulling it out was almost impossible. It was too small to grab onto and was so think, it kept breaking off.
I think there are so many factors that make up a life. Things from the past, people from the present, ideas about the future. Maybe the smallest betrayal has a similar impact, it drains the will out so slowly that you don't even notice. Maybe the wrong step has made me veer just enough from my course to make things more difficult than they should be. How does one recover? It's luck that led me to that little piece of metal, but these days, I'm not sure how lucky I'm feeling.