I love jigsaw puzzles! Plain and simple. The joy of locating and securing that piece that has been so elusive is immeasurable! This joy continues as you progress through the development of each puzzle. Try one out.
When I open the box of that 1000-piece puzzle (I’m a 1000-piece guy) I’m amazed that anyone can figure out how to put all these pieces together to make a picture-perfect puzzle ready for framing! All these pieces in a clear bag. The box cover showing us what it will look like! WOW what an adventure ahead.
Working a jigsaw puzzle is an opportunity for me to practice the technique of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to stay in the moment and to appreciate your surroundings and what you are doing at that particular moment. It is keeping your mind from roaming in the past or wandering into the future. It is about living now. Doing a puzzle keeps me in the moment. I concentrate on the task at hand and for some reason my mind does not wander to other places or other thoughts. The desire to succeed and complete the image on the box is what is important. A sense of peace and serenity take hold. Life Is good.
I’m sure you knew this was coming, but here it is anyway. A jigsaw puzzle is like our life. It is a box full of pieces waiting to be pieced together to form a perfect union and picture. As in life, we don’t know the exact path to success when we are starting out. Many of us have a broader vision of what our life will be, or what we want it to be, but the exact road to completion is almost never clear.
Throughout my life of 60 years, I have experienced so many events that I could have never dreamed of. Even now, looking back, I am amazed at what has happened to me. I am amazed that I have survived this long and am prospering at this stage of existence. The puzzle of my life was put together in a haphazard fashion. Like putting a puzzle together, I start out working the puzzle with no real plan just like my early life. As I progress, a plan starts to develop and I begin to sort and segregate the puzzle pieces by color, by edge, by shape. This helps me execute a plan of attack to connect all the pieces and progress to perfection. My life is the same. I sort and segregate the data that I have at hand and I develop a tactical plan to reach my goal. I usually do not linger. I make a decision quickly with the data that is available. Same with my puzzles.
As the end is near, we speed up securing pieces in the puzzle. We make quick work of the last 200 or so pieces. Life is similar. As the end approaches, we make quick work of all the tasks at hand and all the things we wanted to do. Then the last few pieces are left and the sense of accomplishment starts to take hold of us. We reflect back on our work on the puzzle or our life work and we sigh and relax. Finally the last piece of the puzzle is secured and our masterpiece is complete. As the final days of our life approach we too are completing our own individual masterpiece. The difference is that with a puzzle we decide when the end is to happen. With our life, we never know the extent of our days here. Either way, we worked hard and hopefully prospered. Peace~