If Life Is A Puzzle, These Are the Pieces
When the book, "If Life is a Game, These Are the Rules," by Cherie Carter-Scott recently hit the best-seller list, I thought I would rush out and buy it. I liked the idea of life being some Grand Design, broken down into smaller visible concepts. But something about the title bothered me, and I realized that while the author's ideas were most definitely useful, I personally didn't like to think of my life as a game.
Games to me suggest competition and strategy. I don't like to think I have to compete to be happy, loving and free. God, I believe, loves us all equally and wants us all to be happy. Nor do I like the idea of using strategies to get what I want. And as for rules, I'd never much liked them as a kid and still often prefer bending them to following them.
Still, I longed for some good solid, spiritually empowering guidelines that would help me understand, process and live the best life I could. And I admit, I needed the discipline. I decided that I would look for these guidelines in my own backyard, so to speak. How did I often look at life? What did I believe? What was my philosophy? These are tough questions that require a lot of deep thought, so I decided to let them simmer in my subconscious for a while as I engaged in one of my favorite hobbies: working jigsaw puzzles.
As I sat at my kitchen table constructing a beautiful and colorful 1000 piece puzzle, it occurred to me that, as usual, the answers were right in front of my face. If life isn't a game, it certainly is a puzzle. And if I don't like the concept of rules, I could surely agree there are pieces that must be put into place.
Yes, it made total sense. I loved jigsaw puzzles because they represented life to me. Each event, each situation, each memorable occasion serves as another piece of the picture. Until that moment, I had never truly understood why I was so drawn to jigsaw puzzles. I realized that it was a chance for me to "re-create" the life process from the beginning, when the foundation is put into place, to filling in each and every piece until a whole and beautiful existence is manifested. So, to paraphrase a really hot-selling book, if life is a puzzle, these are the pieces.
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