When the Shoe Doesn’t Fit

I love puzzles.  I haven’t done near as many as I’d like, but I’ve done more than a few.  Over the summer, I completed a 1,000 piece puzzle titled “101 Pooping Puppies”.  To fully appreciate the silly fun as well as the very real challenge of this undertaking, I’ve included a picture of the final product below. Please enjoy a good laugh before reading on!

Over the course of 2 weeks, I casually (at first) and painstakingly (later) stood over the pieces and, eventually, sections I’d managed to put together. Momentum came in spurts as did frustration. Up until the very last piece, I seriously doubted that the puzzle manufacturer had provided all the pieces. Alas, I was wrong. That was not the first time during the putting it together process that I believed I was right and the puzzle was wrong. I couldn’t help but relate that experience to the disappointment we’ve all felt around wanting something to be right so badly that we contort ourselves this way and that until, finally and exhaustively, we realize it isn’t. I was reminded of how the need for control can get us so lost in our conviction of what “should” be true that we lose sight of all other possibilities. That kind of misplaced intensity, to my mind, is the birthplace of suffering.

When we can keep our sights set on the bigger picture, there’s so much more room to grow than the confines of holding tightly to the idea that our way is the only way. Be careful of misconstruing passion for truth and wants for needs. Your field of dreams may not include 101 pooping puppies, but when you picture it, try not to edit or twist it into something you think it ought to be. That is the birthplace of freedom. Let yourself delight in what awaits you there.