Tom Dawson is a man with many experiences, stories, thoughts, and insights. He polishes and hones his contemplations during his treatments of lymphoma, making the atrium of his healthcare center his office. The latent time he spends during these treatments is fertilizer for his focus, clarity of thought, and his ultimate priorities, which are made clear by the perspective a life-threatening illness can offer. Pieces is a blend of long and short stories. The entries are imaginative and inventive. The book's snippets are easy to read due to their varied length. The real beauty of this book is that you can pick it up, get into it, read, and consider; then you can put it down, go about your day with seeds of meaningful thought growing into opinions and beliefs inside your soul. But Pieces is more than simply thought provoking. Dawson hopes to inspire readers. To make them ponder. To draw out wonder. To encourage the examined life from a variety of perspectives. This is his goal. His tools? Informative, relevant, and humorous multi-layered truths. In Pieces, Dawson lets us in on a life of lessons, hard-won and wise. The book is a collection of Dawson's writings and drawings that can be found in his first book, Cottonwood, and on his website. Sometimes it helps to look at the big picture when you overemphasized the details of life, often to the point of stress and worry. If you are looking to step back, take a breath, and put it all into perspective, read Pieces. It will come together in the end.