puzzle

 When it gets really cold outside, and there's not much to do inside, we do puzzles. I remember my mom doing puzzles when I was young. She always had something going, if it wasn't a puzzle it was a painting or a knitting project or a sewing project. She still keeps a basket next to her chair where there is a project going. When we got married, Dale and I would go to his mom and dad's house for Christmas break, and there would usually be a puzzle going at the kitchen table. I loved it. I felt so awkward in the newness of my place in the family, so it gave me something to do that didn't require a lot of vulnerability. I would just sit down next to Dana and start hunting for pieces. It was easy to find common ground.

In my plight for peace, I have been asking myself, what things do I do that are life-giving? Going to the park is one (see yesterday's post.) Puzzling is another one, an easy one. While we sat and listened to the confirmation hearings on Columbus Day, I pulled out a 500 piece puzzle and started sorting pieces. Sorting is my job. First I sort the edges, then I sort the colors, then I give people piles to work if anyone is helping me. It's good therapy for me, and it's a lesson in patient for all my little apprentices. They think it's hilarious to stick the last few pieces in their pockets until we get all the way down to the end and then they come out with them. I don't care much unless there's an argument over it. I mean, I just sat here and worked this whole puzzle for two hours, why shouldn't you get to put the last piece in? Ha, I joke. I really don't care, I'm always more relieved that we didn't come up one piece short by the end.

Sitting with a puzzle forces me to slooow down. There's no "hurry up" with a puzzle. It's a slow process of placing one piece after the next after the next until it's completed. It seems like it is impossible when all the pieces are in a pile on the table after the initial dump. I feel that way about my life, it will never all be sorted out and well-ordered, and it's partly true. But watching the pieces fall into place brings me immense peace, knowing that anything can be brought into order if enough time and attention is devoted to it. I just wish putting my house in order was as simple as putting a puzzle together. 

lvb