I didn’t think we would ever get it done.

How many of you on cold snowy days get puzzles out to work?  Well if anyone wants this puzzle – you may have it for the price of postage.

It is really cute and with all the colors one would think it was easy.  They would be sooooo wrong!

Let me digress.  We had our family gather January 19, 2019 and our adult kids started a puzzle.

Since it was on the table we finished it.  It was tough.  It took about a week.  The colors were the same for many parts of the puzzle and so we organized by shape and just kept trying to put the pieces in.  We finished it – there were many snow days that we weren’t going anywhere anyway.

Because it still kept snowing, we got out another puzzle which went rather quickly.

 

The sky was a bit tricky  because part of the ocean was the same shade and color but we really thought we were “good” at this puzzle thing – it was still snowing- so we went to look for another puzzle in the basement.  We moved in 2014 and got rid of many of our puzzles and only kept the challenging puzzles and ones we still wanted to see when done.

On February 19, 2019 we had gotten most of the outside edge of the horse and what we were learning was the easiest part of the puzzle was already to put together.

It is now March 27, 2019 and we just finished it today! This only happened because we made a concerted effort yesterday and today to get it done!  There were times that we just sat – from 15 – 30 minutes and never found a piece to add the the puzzle.  We found pieces that went together but they were still far away from sides.

You would think that it would be obvious what piece went in where!

What was maddening is that the colors shifted – sometimes at the edge of a piece or though a piece.  Because it was dragging on and on, we were getting discouraged, there were papers and other things that migrated back to the table.  Yesterday when “spring cleaning” hit me, I took the papers off the table and about 10 or so pieces fell out of the newspapers.  These 2 missing pieces were among them.  That is why we couldn’t find them among the pieces on the table – they weren’t on the table to be found.

I (Barb) belong to a Centering Prayer group and we did Visio Divina (like Lectio Divina but with photos).  The conversation had turned to God working in our lives and helping up put the pieces together.  One person commented that there might be some “missing pieces”.  This was just a few weeks ago and I hadn’t realized that there were actually pieces missing but I was so invested in trying to get the puzzle together, I listened with “concrete thinking” ears and not “metaphorical thinking” ears.  I had said “No, no, there are no pieces missing because we opened the bag new when we started.”

Now that the angst of getting the puzzle done is over, I can step back and take off my “concrete” thinking cap and realize life is really like this puzzle.  We know there are pieces in our lives that need to fit to make our lives feel calm and put together.  Our lives are like they are being put together and yet we get so anxious when we can’t work it or see or get it done sometimes we get frustrated.  Even with someone helping us, we can get frazzled and just want to quit.  There were times that I was ready to just call it quits on this puzzle and put the puzzle in the garbage but my husband David and I persevered and plugged onward.

We cheered each other for finding just 1 piece.  Both of us in the last few days took time to work and sometimes worked alone and got some sections done which gave both of us a boost that we could really continue and maybe get it done before summer.  The last piece we put in together and after giving ourselves a “high 5” did a “high 10”.

When you look at the photo of the finished horse, you can see the horse has a smirk on it’s face – yeah the horse has almost seemed like a living being that thwarted our every move.  At times I teased that I was going to get some scissors and cut the pieces to fit.  I could see my husband trying the same shapes over and over in a spot and I knew that they wouldn’t fit because I had tried those same pieces there and knew for certain they wouldn’t fit …..but I kept my mouth shut and smiled.  When those pieces were finally found we both cheered no matter who found it!

The snow is melted.  Our daffodils are starting to pop up from the ground.  The yard work and other things will keep us busy now.  I really don’t know if we are going to get the other puzzles out that are left.  One is a circular puzzle of grass and it says if you get the puzzle done, you take a photo and they will send you a t-shirt commemorating your finish of the puzzle.  The other is a round one of nothing but No. 2 Pencils.  We have done the round one that is nothing but different fishing lures.  When our oldest daughter was in High School, she decided to give up TV for Lent and so she got a 5,000 piece puzzle of nothing but “red” coca cola products.  We never got that one done but we left huge pieces that were put together into the box as a pre-starter if we ever did try it again.

This horse is only 1,000 pieces and says for age 12 on up.  I wish they ranked puzzles by their hardness except I know that for some people puzzles are easier than for others.  I really credit my husband for sticking in there because he is color blind in both colors.  He really does remarkably well especially on shapes.

Until now I couldn’t laugh about this puzzle.  There were some days I never even went around to that side of the table because I got so exasperated with getting nowhere day after day.

What have I learned?  Persistence and patience does pay off – with puzzles and with life. God does help put the puzzle pieces of our lives together and sometimes they are being put together even without us knowing work is being done.  On really hard things good partners can help each other through hard times – with puzzles and with life.

I really enjoy doing puzzles with my husband.  I really enjoy each day as I journey though life with him as well.  Good friends and companions make all the difference in the world on how you travel and where your journey leads.  When you can laugh in the face of hardship, when you can encourage each other through hardship, the journey is as important as the destination.

Really, does anyone want a puzzle?