I recently opened up a puzzle, dumped all 1,000 pieces on the bulletin board that I use as puzzle board so that I could start to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. It was a colorful mess of little pieces waiting to be joined together to provide a pretty picture.
Putting puzzles together is what I use as a diversion when I need to take a break and think. It occurred to me how much putting together a puzzle can be like life’s puzzle.
My mother and I tend to like puzzles that are colorful, that make us feel happy. There are times when too many pieces of the same color background make it seem dull or tedious to work on.
The same can be true in our everyday life so we tend to leave them for a while, sometimes until the end and look for some of the more vibrant or easier pieces to do first. We start with so many disconnected pieces that we must put together to make something meaningful. It is a big task.
First, there is the border that dictates what and where our life will be contained. Then we start to search for colors and shapes that blend and form a pattern.
One must find where each one of the pieces come together, or where each piece must fit in our lives. It may be the place we live, the things we do, or the people who play an important part in our life or it could be all of the above.
When working on a puzzle it helps to be able to look at the picture on the box. It helps educates us as to where all the different pieces fit into the puzzle.
Just as puzzles come in different sizes so do families. Size has little to do with the beauty of the puzzle. There is so much to admire in both large and small puzzles.
There is a tendency to put pieces together that can be seen immediately to fit or be joined together. Sometimes two or maybe more form the nucleus or maybe a beginning of the whole picture. Like a marriage, where pieces are joined together to make an interesting picture, or life. Hopefully the pieces will fit and we find where each piece must fit in or not.
Sometimes you swear that a piece must surely fit. It seems to be the right shape and color, but for some reason, it just doesn't fit into the shape of things. Sometimes you look and look among all the pieces that are supposed to fit in the puzzle and you believe that the piece is missing.
Like puzzles, life is as colorful or complex as we make it. Sometimes by accident. Some times by thought.
Who doesn't want a colorful, vibrant life? But then sometimes it is good if the puzzle, or one’s life is calming and restful, like large portions of sky or sea when nothing is happening that stresses us.
I remember once doing a puzzle that was a picture of a quilt. It had a wide border, you might say, that was around the original border.
In life, this could be like adding another personality through a marriage or a new special friend, children or events that could change the original pattern, an extended family. For some, it could be somber with a death, a bad experience as for a born-again Christian recovering from bad habits, a health turn for the best.
Sometimes there are empty spaces that later are filled or maybe never are because the right piece may be missing. It takes time; the pieces don't just fall into place.
You work hard, looking, turning, trying and you may get disgusted with the process. It is really hard.
Sometimes it is tempting to throw it all back in the box and start over with a different puzzle, but that is not the purpose of the game or the project that you are working on. By sticking with it and continuing to keep trying all of the different pieces, it takes shape, just as things do in our lives.
How happy we are when there is surge of pieces that fall so easily into place. We are also discouraged when for a long time nothing seems to fit.
You take a break and usually when you come back to it again most generally you will find pieces that fit. As the puzzle takes shape, many thoughts run through your mind, happy thoughts of success, sometimes failure, but as it all takes shape, you realize such is life.
When you first start the puzzle, there are so many pieces that you have trouble deciding where they are supposed to go, so the initial progress is slow. As the picture comes together and the pieces to be considered become fewer, the puzzle goes together more rapidly, and finally, the last easily discernible pieces are easily placed.
So too is life when we are young. There are so many pieces that we can’t seem to make the connections.
But as sections of the puzzle are put together, we have direction. When the options become fewer, the rate of assembly goes very quickly.
There are bright, happy days, successes, and times spent with little progress, but you acknowledge that all the pieces put together are what shape your life: beautiful, dull, mediocre, and it all depends on picking the right puzzle and putting it together in the right way. That's life.
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Birthdays and Anniversaries:
• Thursday, January 3rd: Jerret Utpadel, Andrea Avery, Stan Nelson
• Friday, January 4th: Sophie Elizabeth Stork, Kelsey Christensen, Delphine Pence, Jeff Cornelius, Dennis Hill, Monty Mrotz, Jeremy Nelson, Corey Johnson, John Butler.
• Saturday, January 5th: Olivia Pauline Christopherson, Devon Mark Born, Pat Simon King, Warren Kelly, Randy Paulson, Jay Neitzel, Amy Kasper, Nash Petranek, Melinda & Ray Talamantes.
• Sunday, January 6th: Mallory Anna Schlinger, Marianne Christensen, Kevin Jensen, Tammy Busho, Todd Nelson.
• Monday, January 7th: Rodney Peterson, Gary Ayers, Stacy Jensen Pirkl, Karina Thompson.
• Tuesday, January 8th: (Elvis Presley) Cameron Schember, Mike Marcus, Terry Pelzl, Dan Reese, David Jensen, Ryan Benning, Jennifer Rechtzigel, Brandon Borchert, John & Melissa Marlin.
• Wednesday, January 9th: Melinda Hanson Talamanates, Lisa Dunn Wayne, Mark Lee, Adam Deml, Jay Wangsness, Steve Vanden Heuvel, Becky Wayne Clark, Larry Jensen, Allen Dobberstein, Allan Swearingen, Dan & Lavonne Nelson.
With each passing year, grow stronger, grow wiser, grow richer in spirit. May the year ahead be filled with new discoveries!
