Looking Closer Can Make Something Beautiful

is my favorite rule in Rules.  In my next book, my main character is a photographer, and my husband took me along on one of his sunrise shoots last week.  He was talking to me about why he was choosing the scenes he was, what he was thinking about, etc.  Suddenly he knelt down, and there in the branches of this bush--


Bailey Island, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

was a small snail.  It was a good reminder there's value in walking slowly.  There's a whole world of tiny beauty you miss when you rush by. 

I love that rule about looking closer, because it's true of people and it's true of things.  I see snails all the time. They are all over the shore in Maine. I like to sit one on my palm and feel his foot push against me so he can peek out from under his shell and see the strange new land of my hand.

But this little, near translucent, courageous one (who must've worked so hard to climb up there) made me look closer and marvel. 

And see he was beautiful.