Beth's Ponderings
Years ago, we
acquired a second-hand 4,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of a castle in Scotland .
For years it sat
on a shelf in the basement, and my Dad was always going to put it together, but
we didn’t have a table or board big enough as the box said the puzzle was 57 x 38
inches.
Then Dad passed
away in 2003, and still the puzzle sat on the shelf.
Numerous other (smaller)
puzzles were completed over the years, yet that 4,000 piece one never moved.
Finally I decided
it was time to do something with it. On
January 13th of this year, my niece and I took it off the shelf. After measuring every possible surface, we
started putting the puzzle together right on the floor in a corner of the
living room.
In the beginning, I
had a bit of assistance from my sister and niece, but I completed the bulk of the
puzzle myself. All in all, it took me
just over two and half months, but with my health challenges this year, that
was actually stretched over ten months, and the final piece was put in on
November 12th (photo, below).
Many people
stopping at our house would comment on the progress (or lack thereof) and say
that they couldn’t do something like that because they didn’t have the patience.
Yet, it isn’t
really “patience” per se that is required.
Like any task in this world, it is love and enjoyment of the task that
keeps a person going, and whether you are a “journey” or a “destination” person. I really enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles so the
task was not daunting - in the sense of impossible - as I knew I WOULD finish
it, and it is the challenge of the puzzle, not the completed puzzle that I get
the most enjoyment from.
The puzzle has now
been taken apart and boxed up again so it can be passed onto someone else for
them to enjoy.
This is also a
good time of year to remember that the Christmas season is a journey to enjoy,
not a destination to reach and check off a list. We wonder why life is going by so fast, could
it be because we rush through our holidays and milestones in order to reach the
next one?
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua23/home/December%2015%2C%202017%20Chautauqua3.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
