Little Details are So Important, Make Sure You “Stand and Stare!”
Details, Details, Details!! Do you ever feel overtaken by details? Sometimes my life seems like one long stream of details. Some carefully adhered to, some missed, some ignored and all with consequences!
My day job is accounting. When you work with the numbers and activities within a time period, the reports are only as good as the input or details that have been included. Leave out any tiny component and your results will be skewed.
My husband is now retired and loves spending some of his spare time re-arranging the living room furniture to see how long it takes me to discover what was moved. While I am a detail-oriented person, this can sometimes take me awhile! Often I am so into the cerebral, since I deal with facts all day, that I miss the visual details of beauty or change around me.
Details in our jobs are of paramount importance. But the small details of the rest of our lives are equally important. How sad if we miss them…
Vladimir Nabokov said: “Caress the detail, the divine detail.” So, which details will I give the greater importance? Will the cold hard details of my job be my total focus, making me be blind to the details of beauty, nature and family which are the God-given blessings of our life?
Divine details… Here are a few I saw just today. See if you relate…
*Bella, our dog, has this uncanny sense of my moods and is the epitome of a totally faithful, totally structured creature. When she gets the nod from Lou, she hurls herself down the sidewalk with breakneck speed in obvious joy to greet me at lunch and in the evenings when I arrive from work. She reminds me of how God must feel when we are anxious to spend time with Him each day!
*The hummingbirds fight over the feeder. The bull-nosed one always wins. It makes me think of how persistence and not giving in easily is such a blessed attribute. Sometimes we need to be bull-headed to protect the precious.
*The first strawberries of the season always taste better. God-given gifts such as this, my favorite fruit, can even seem blasé when you get it too often or too easily.
*There’s a wonderful little black and gray bird who seems to accompany me each day on my morning walk. He lights close by here and there all along the way. He reminds me of angels.
*If you pick your green beans every few days they keep producing for a long time. If you ignore them, new blooms cease and soon there are no more beans. The treasures this life offers, including relationships, need attention and nourishing or they can wither and die.
Ponder this wonderful poem:
“WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.”
by W.H. Davies
Remember how I said ignoring details has consequences?
What if WE “have no time to stand and stare”?
Like the green beans that don’t get picked, will the beauty of life just disappear for us?
May it never be so!
In dealing with the necessary details, always make time for the divine ones.
Are you making time “to stand and stare”?
31 Comments
I absolutely loved this post, Anne. Great job. It’s my firm belief that the joys of living are found in the details: the taste of that strawberry; the odd beauty of the banana slug eating from the outdoor cat food bowl…the short chin hairs on my aging terrier…the list could go on and on. I think people who don’t make the time to take the time to “stop and stare” are missing out on a lot. (This isn’t to say I’m always, 100% of the time, attentive…I just do my best!)
“Caress the detail, the divine detail.” Nabokov was so right! As a woman who earns her living from writing non-fiction content, I know how important, how essential, those details are. When I ignore them, out of time constraints or simply a lack of interest in the subject, the words on the page are flat and boring.
Thanks again, Anne, for another wonderful post!
Kim,
I so appreciate that you are following what I write. The older I get, the more precious everything is becoming. It is hard to describe the deep emotion that comes as I think of the preciousness of each of my remaining siblings, as I cherish the jaunts with my husband to the ocean on Sundays, watching for the tiny details that repeat in my day that bring joy. I eat my strawberries slower than I used to.
We used to take roadtrips up the coast in the hippie era in our little VW camper. I will never forget one time we stopped in the middle of nowhere to rest our legs and move around. There was a field of cows eating grass just across the fence. My husband cranked up Simon and Garfunkle full blast singing the “The Sound of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and opened all the doors. All the cows stopped and stared and listened until the songs ended, then they all bent down to the grass again. Now THAT was a divine detail impressed on my brain for always.
Enjoy those details. They will inspire you always. Hugs, Anne
Anne,
You are such a wonderful writer! Your posts are always so heartwarming.
As you know, I am a dog lover as well. Many times while I am walking mine I have my phone out reading emails or looking at Facebook.
Yesterday my Bella encountered a caterpillar on our walk. Usually my reaction would be to pull her away, continue walking and looking down at my phone. For whatever reason I stopped and let her check out her discovery.
I was so tickled to see her sniff at the caterpillar as it crawled up her nose. She pawed at it, licked it and played with it for a good five minutes. The unhappy ending is when she was finished playing she ate it, lol!
I got a good laugh out of watching her play with it. We must take time to stand and stare.
Thank you for this post!
Love you!
Thanks, Lori for the compliment. I have to say, the day before he died, my dear pastor brother in law said one of the ways to be close to God is never to think too highly of ourselves, so I will leave it alone.
I forgot you have a Bella, Too. Bella means “beautiful” I was told, and it is the beauty of the divine details that is strong on my mind the last little while.
I loved your sharing of the caterpillar story. I hope his demise was swift and painless.
Many hugs
Anne
Anne,
I love this posting! My very first silent retreat I was alone for three days at the retreat center in the wooded mountains in Southern California. After getting things put into my room and getting the lay of the land I went outside to sit on a bench. I just sat and observed. The activity of the birds and squirrels drew my occasional glance as the afternoon breeze brought the scent of pine and sage and with it memory of other days spent in similar surroundings. Off to my right was a small footbridge that crossed a dry creek. It was reminiscent of the simple bridges I would make as a child in the sand at the park with twigs donated by the local trees. As I let go of the “cares” of the day and began to listen to God, I sensed the most absurd suggestion. “Why don’t you make a bridge?” “What? Get down in the dirt, make a miniature canyon, find twigs break them and make a bridge?” “Why not? Do it!” “I haven’t done this since I was ten. I’m fifty-two!?” Well, I did it. I took pictures. I stared at it. I began to think about how much I like to look at things, especially those I have made. I joke about the 18 foot sailboat I built taking me three years to complete. Six months of building and two and a half years of staring. I brought that thought to God. I sensed Him saying, “I like looking at them too.” Think of it. Is it possible that the creator of the universe might like to stop and stare at his creation. It is recorded that after each phase of creation God said each was good. He must have been staring.
I give myself permission now to stop and stare. I am following my Father’s example.
Thank you for bringing all this to mind for me with this beautifully written piece.
Jeff
Jeff
I have to say that my eyes blurred with tears as I read your post. I had to blink a few times and start the sentences over. The thought of our Creator stopping and staring at what He has made, including us, is sooo cool.
When we create something that takes great effort and into which we pour ourselves, like you did into your boat, or even your bridges, we should remember to stop and stare at those, too. Thankful for creative ability, perhaps even amazed that something that cool came out of us!
If I remember what you said before, you somehow were the only person who showed up for the silent retreat? I think God intended that for you. Just you and Him and all those wonderful details for you to rediscover.
Thank you so much for sharing. Hugs, Anne
Jeff –
I love the experience you had on your retreat, “building the bridge.”
It is so great to see you dive into building relationship bridges, you have been given gifts to help us understand how we can develop our selves. You are an amazing teacher, I am thankful to be in your company.
Neil
Neil,
Your family’s kindnesses to me have overflowed my expectations for my occupational life, while enriching my personal life in the most significant ways. Your willingness to challenge me in my darkest days and then stay beside me day by day has had the most significant impact upon the trajectory of my life.
Thank you Neil for the opportunity to serve with you in any small way.
Blessings upon you and yours,
Jeff
Anne, I love this! Thank you so much for the reminder to slow down & take in the little things around us- little things have a big impact sometimes. I also appreciate you for giving me a pep talk this morning, I so needed it & am taking your words & prayer to heart. I love you! Carrie
Carrie, I love you, too. I so love also that we are both so partial to hummingbirds and the way God seems to use them in our immediate worlds. We all need an emotional boost sometimes. Next time, it will probably be my turn! Almost time to go home and check out some more details to stare at. Glad you took time to read and comment!
Hugs.
Anne –
This post comes at a great time! I have been struggling with staying in the moment and enjoying the little gifts that are right in front of me. To much thinking about the past and worry about the future. One of my yoga teachers taught me a great lesson recently, ” Your response will determine your experience.” I found that to be so profound considering I have been living my life between the past and the future and not being able to enjoy the moment. Thank you for reminding me to stay grounded and in the moment.
Neil
“Your response will determine your experience”… I immediately think of the times I get nervous in traffic, especially when I am not the driver. I allow my inability to handle the situation “my way” to affect my emotions and my ride.
When I truly relinquish control of a situation and sit back and enjoy the ride, my experience is much more satisfying. Now that is worth chewing on and expanding mentally… Thank you!