A marquette is a tiny scale sculpture that artists makes before building huge masterpieces. It is synonymous to children asking me how to spell a word. My default response is, “Sound it out. Sssss–owwww-nndd iiiitttt owwwwwww-t.”

Slow and Steady + Slow and Small
Its surprising how often I have to remind myself of Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, and the Permaculture Principle of Slow and Small Solutions. It’s a common theme in any passion. The love to accomplish a task or get involved is often drowned by the very same fuel of love. Slowing down is a necessary task. It slows down the instant gratification in order to learn and appreciate the small things. We all need to be reminded of this.

My Reminder
For the past two weeks I’ve been going on nature hikes with the children and it’s been a constant reminder of how appreciative they are just to simply be outdoors. After walking a few feet, the kids are jumping and shouting about the rollie pollies on the ground. Being an adult, I guess I don’t see things that small and obscure anymore, but this has been a good reminder to slow down even more to notice those subtle details. I should be more observant than the children and yet it is they who are pointing it out to me. Then again, I’m not looking for rollie pollies.

Recap
In any new project, small scale projects need to be accomplished first before scaling up to bigger things. It doesn’t always get better with bigger. Often times, it can get worse. Investing your life savings on number 21 on the roulette table. It’s a lucky number they say.

Regardless what type of project it is, a tiny sculpture is less likely to break the bank.