Puzzled
Puzzles are an interesting concept. There is a clear end; however, there are no step-by-step instructions for how to complete the puzzle. Yes, you open the box and dump the pieces out on a table but after that, everyone has their own method for how they are going to complete the puzzle. However, the point of the puzzle is always the same. A puzzle is a game, a problem, or a toy. It’s meant to test a person’s ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put the pieces together in a logical way in order to arrive at the correct solution or a perfect picture. It sounds easy but it can get pretty complicated. Some puzzles are one hundred pieces, some are five thousand pieces. It all depends on the type of puzzle that you received; however, you have to use all the pieces in order to complete the puzzle. You can’t get halfway through and decide that this puzzle needs different pieces. You have to work with what you were given.
My life is like a puzzle; however, I didn’t have a picture to glance at in hopes to find clues for my next move. At times, I wasn’t even sure I had the right pieces to make the puzzle even look like something that resembled a picture. My puzzle pieces were not numbered and I did not get to pick how many pieces my puzzle came with, or the difficulty level.
A puzzle is usually a one-person game. You can have more people contributing to the same puzzle; However, everyone has different ideas of how the puzzle should be completed. Some like to start by separating the edges from the rounded pieces. Others like to start by organizing each piece into piles of similar colors. I felt like I had multiple people trying to complete my puzzle. Each with strong ideas of how this puzzle was to be completed. My pieces were passed from user to user trying to fit pieces together that clearly did not fit together for me. Sometimes I wonder how my puzzle would have come together if I had different people helping me, or none at all. Sometimes I wonder how my puzzle would have come together if I would have approached it differently. Possibly start with the corner pieces and work my way in.
Life is amazing when you pick up two pieces and they fit perfectly together, snapping into place with ease. Finding a piece’s match can give you the confidence and excitement to keep going. However, that is often not the case. Most of my life was a series of pieces that were completely wrong for each other. Sometimes it felt like they weren’t even from the same puzzle. No matter how hard I tried to force them to work together, they just didn’t. Several times in my life I walked away from my puzzle altogether. Taking a step back to try and get the bigger picture. It was during these times that I was the most frustrated with how things were progressing along. However, taking a step back from my puzzle and trying to view it from another angle is always when I would find a missing piece that I didn’t see before.
How often in life do we miss what is right in front of us? Sometimes the piece is right in front of us and all we needed to do was take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Sometimes all we need to do is pick up the same piece we’ve picked up a hundred times and look at it from a different perspective. Then suddenly it all makes sense, with just a small perspective shift. That same piece snaps into place perfectly and fuels you with the momentum to finish the game. Just then, it all comes together nicely and creates a beautiful image. It’s right then that I realize, it’s all part of the game- the pieces not fitting, the ups and down, it all made me appreciate this beautiful image that I worked to create. That gorgeous, stunning masterpiece that I put so much thought and effort into is… me.