Parts and pieces

The sun shone brightly across the canola fields today. Minus the happy sounds of dancing

Turkish girls, I stopped to hear the silence of the sun.

I found myself getting a bit Thoreau-like pondering a single canola flower. It's so easy to overlook the details, when the whole is so extraordinary.

I know that all the events in my life that were half understood and half remembered were a result of ignoring the details.

Now that I am older, I am more concerned with the parts and pieces that make up the whole. Maybe I have slowed down and that immediate gratification is not so important. Only seeing the big picture was really never gratifying because I tended to overlook some very important details

For instance, my first husband's pencil thin neck(size 14) . Why hadn't I noticed this beforehand?

Another example was the day I adopted Sienna from the shelter and didn't notice that her teeth were all rotten until I got her home.

I also rented many apartments that had things terribly wrong and didn't realize until after I had signed the lease. I adapted to the lack of closet space and unusual placement of electrical outlets. Blow drying my hair in the kitchen was quirky.

I preferred quirky back then.

I believe the appreciation of all the details comes with age. The big picture is clearer now because of this.

Things that are happening now will be remembered in greater detail and better understood.

I still prefer quirky-somethings just don't change.

Yet somethings do, I am now married to a man with a normal sized neck(16 1/2) and Sienna has a healthy mouth of gums.

So the next time you find yourself wrapped up in the big picture, try to think of all the little brushstrokes it took to complete it.