Saturday 13 October 2012

The Jigsaw Puzzle

As a child, I always enjoyed solving jigsaw puzzles. The entire process of attempting to arrange the separate pieces of a puzzle in the correct manner to ensure that they form one complete picture was an amazing journey! Even at the age of 23 years, jigsaw puzzles continue to fascinate me - of course, instead of solving a picture made up of 200 pieces, today, I try solving a puzzle of 5000 pieces.

I feel that my world is nothing but a jigsaw puzzle. Each piece of me is what helps in the creation of the picture of my world. There are some pieces which show my likes. Similarly there are pieces that show all the things I do not like. There are some pieces I proudly showcase before the world and there are those pieces which I always try hiding in a corner. Some pieces are easy to join and they just seem to fall into place correctly. In the same manner, there are some things in life that come to us very easily.

There are some pieces which we feel belong to one particular area and actually we may end up fixing them in the wrong place. This happens to us at so many junctures of life. We keep fixating on a particular desire and we keep getting restless if it remains unfulfilled. At this point, we feel stuck because we are not able to progress towards the completion of the picture. Our life comes to a stand-still and we start operating from a tunnel-vision where all that matters is fulfillment of that desire. In the process, we start moving away from the process of actually living our life. We stop the process of completing the picture because we are just not able to remove the piece from that area.

It is important, at this juncture, to note that the piece by itself is not wrong. It is alright to have wishes and desires. The trick is to balance our attention in such a manner that we are able to focus on other things in life as well instead of just getting fixated at that spot. With time, as we keep fitting various pieces together, the number of missing pieces will automatically lessen.

Completing a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces itself takes me more than 3 days. The puzzle of life has millions of such pieces - many of the pieces still waiting to be discovered. We do not know each and every aspect of our personality. If we knew all the secrets, all of us would be enlightened souls! Not all of us have a complete picture of life - to have the complete picture could take us several lives. Therefore, the true joy does not always lie in completing the picture - sometimes one can experience joy by simply being at peace with the missing pieces.

19 comments:

  1. Very insightful! Hmm, maybe I guess I needed to read something like this:)

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    1. :) :) When the universe feels there is something you need to read, it sends it into your world :) I am glad I could be the medium :)

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  2. Very well written. Here is a quote from Juanita Bratcher's poem:

    Life is a jigsaw puzzle
    It's not always fun and games
    Life is what you make of it
    And nothing ever remains the same

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    1. Now that is a very interesting quote :) Thank you for sharing it :)

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  3. Lovely and insightful post...!!

    Loved your last lines the most:

    The true joy does not always lie in completing the picture - sometimes one can experience joy by simply being at peace with the missing pieces.

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  4. Such a lovely thought, and I agree completely.

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  5. What an elevating thought process!! Trust you to come out with stuff like this Divya .. Each and every line is so so true ..
    Loved the 'tunnel vision' part .. Many of us waste precious chunks in our life yearning for something and miss out on so much of happiness, discoveries and learning that could have otherwise been all ours ..

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    1. I am glad you liked reading this :) :) Thank You!

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  6. The puzzle of life is certainly complex and hence each day is a day of learning:)

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  7. Yes :) As long as you don't get puzzled by the puzzle, each day is a day of learning :)

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  8. Aha! I knew I would find the gem once I trawled the waters!

    In you, I see the god in me!
    I love you, Divya!

    Regards,
    Mohini

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    1. Awww thanks Mohini :) It's really creepy how Mr. Yuvraj was talking about life being a jigsaw puzzle - I actually had written something about it just a couple of days ago :)

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    2. And that is the first thing that struck me!!!!

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    3. Ha!Ha! How cool is that!

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  9. Lovely thoughts Divya. A couple of years back I was facing a lot of things to be dealt with and was getting totally stressed out. A close friend said 'Stop worrying. Everything will fall in place like a jigsaw puzzle' I keep telling that to myself whenever I have troubled times!

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  10. You have a very wise friend!! I have the tendency of constantly thinking a lot when troubles and worries seem to be engulfing me...It is difficult in those times to truly remember to just let it be...But these days, more often than not I do succeed :)

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  11. I remembered that drawing of yours that you used to depict yourself - the different coloured pieces of a puzzle as well as the missing pieces. I think it is important that once we find some pieces, we don't force-fit them where they don't belong; eventually, they will mess with the other pieces too and it'll all begin to fall apart.

    You and I should solve a puzzle once!

    Love,
    Sanika

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    1. Hmm..that is interesting...Sometimes we do discover pieces of our self that just don't seem to make sense with the present set of being...Trying to add that to the current order of things is disturbing...the trick is to be patient and just wait for newer pieces to show up which will easily attach to the existing ones and then serve as a bridge between the old and new pieces...Thank you for drawing my attention to that perspective :)

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