I’ve been noticing details a lot lately.
It struck me, first, looking at the living room of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s boyhood home and listening to the tour guide weave together the story of their family. Imagining his mother turning the dial to hear her sons voice on an old radio. Wondering what she must have been thinking. Was she filled with pride? with worry? Did she look at the pillow with all 7 of her children’s names stitched into it, stopping just briefly at “Dwight” while praying for each one?
The blue and white wallpaper. Ruffles on the pure white curtains.
Creaks in the floor.
Changes overtime. Additions to the house. Electricity. Plumbing. Added rooms.
Each element made up of small details. Everyone noticing and hanging on to something different. All folding into one experience of home.
Fast forward through time - a walk through the museum. Instead of details of a home. It’s a walk through the details that make up a life.
Passports that permitted travel for Dwight and Mamie and their small family. Small books of paper that went with them across the seas and through many stages of life and leadership.
A table that military leaders gathered around to plan D-Day. I wondered what passed over it. How many maps, memos, ideas were laid out in front of one another? What proposals were cut? Where did everyone stand? Sit? How did they move around that table? Did anyone shout? Stay silent when they should have spoken up? Was food ever passed over the table? Drink?
Thinking about the details that led to one of the most significant events in world history, I realized that on this day (give or take a couple), I was noticing pinholes and red string stuck in massive maps spread across walls. Phones at each of the many stations. Papers scattered on desks plastered to walls. I had just as many questions about the details of the Map Room of the War HQ, across the ocean in London. Churchill & England one year, Eisenhower & the U.S. the next.
Details connect us across time. Across our own life and memories. and to one another through time and circumstance and place.
Dwelling on the details brings together a more vibrant image. A deeper understanding of the whole. In the case of the life of a president, it’s the weaving together of each era, each cornerstone of service. From a small home in Abilene, Kansas to marriage and a life around the world. To the scratched out sections of speeches and the scribbles that replaced them. From the dinner tables to the war planning tables. From the interstate system to social programs to nuclear deals and treaties. These are the details that come together to make up the identity of a world leader. The details bring us to relate. The details help us to better understand. To consider the person, as well as the outcomes and events of his leadership. details brought me an appreciation of the whole.
It’s the details that make the whole beautiful.
A week later, I took vacation in the South Coast of France and found myself seeing more of the small things.
Little luxuries.
Simple, few ingredients that come together in beautiful meals.
The layered, perfectly balanced scents in a perfume.
The colors of a flower and produce market.
The increasing warmth of a sunrise…
…countered by the pulse of a storm brewing. GUST of wind. CRACK of lightning. BURST of a rain cloud.
Cups of coffee and plates of scrambled eggs or omlettes and toasted baguettes.
Wine.
Tiny pebbles falling off my hand onto my book.
Layers of sunscreen.
Each freckle that comes out in the sun.
Hats in a store window.
Tiny samples from a huge wheel of cheese.
Lanterns hanging from stone walls that are who-knows-how-old.
Focus on and appreciation for detail - simple, purposeful - are what made these little luxuries.
Still hung up on the details, I came home and thought about the small scenes that have been making me feel most whole recently.
silly words kicking off a game of scrabble.
and scattered cards
and a bent up book
and a leftover ice cream bowl
still sitting there in the morning, marking a late night well spent.
Staring at books wondering what stories they hold...and remembering that I have my own shelf full of books that I want to get to.
Tables and kitchens filled with the first Hermiston watermelons I’ve had in years.
Sweet, sweet peaches and other refreshing summer favorites.
Last minute car camping and peanut butter cup smores.
The precious details like menu cards and place settings that make up bachelorette celebrations and weddings of dear friends and appreciating the months of work that went into those moments.
Finally being at home making breakfast, then sitting down to eat it with a book that understands why that quiet morning and meal and the act of making something for myself is nourishment for the body and soul.
Wearing Chacos or Tevas most of the time and carrying them with me everywhere else as “just in case” shoes.
Seeing tiny whispers of fall and feeling a bubble of excitement and an urge to throw on a sweater in 80 degree heat.
Scattered weights and “puddles of hard work” - new evidence every time I work out that I can push myself.
Photos of memories that I’d not seen, and more recent photos that I feel compelled to print and share because in them I see beauty or wonder or some other sentiment I want to lift up and honor.
Birthday cards and “grown-up” purchases that I’ve been waiting years to make.
An unplanned stop on the way home to watch sunflowers and sunsets that turns into night after night soaking in Kansas sunsets from the back of my car, journal or dinner or both in hand.
Scraps of paper littering my desk and dining room table because I knew I would forget my thoughts if I didn’t write it down right then...
and the same metaphorical, cluttered file in my mind, holding all the thoughts that needed a long journal entry or two to sort out.
These are the moments I am choosing to dwell on. Simple, small things I am capturing, practicing gratitude for. Details that bring me to cherish my life as a whole.
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