Wednesday, June 23, 2010

JUXTAPOSITIONAL JIGSAW PUZZLES


I have never been a worker of jigsaw puzzles . I do not have the patience. Sitting in one place and trying to figure out how small pieces of fiber board fit together is not my idea of fun. Although, as a mother I feel that I am constantly doing just that. As I study the schedules of my children, husband, myself and our family as a whole, I see that this skill might just come in quite handy.

Or maybe that is why I do not wish to work jigsaw puzzles at this point in my life. The thought of fitting yet another group of things together to make a whole just sounds exhausting. As my children grew, I was inundated with schedules for school, church, dance, sports, tests, medical appointments and play dates. Times 4! Trying to fit together all of the drop off and pick up times for each activity was like getting a master's degree in organizational expedition.

A master Family calendar still hangs in my kitchen and is still the go-to informational device for my family and the last word on whether or not I told someone about a required activity....if it is on the calendar, it is their responsibility to see it. Color and shape coded for each member of the family, we can easily see who and what is involved and required for each activity.

Older generations who have raised their families will silently sit and wiggle together pieces of a puzzle for an entire afternoon. Some work from the outside in making a frame from the flat sided pieces to form a "big picture" view of the scene they are trying to recreate from the picture on the lid of the box. Others will work on the details first, putting like colors together, and end with the edges to finish off the big picture. We each approach a problem or task differently.

Certainly there will come a time in my life when I will crave the organizational brain workout that solving puzzles provide. Right now I cannot imagine the free time to do anything, much less work a puzzle. But then ten years ago, I could not imagine having time in my schedule to pen a blog....probably had never heard the term "blog". So who knows? Will I find the time to allow my family schedule and puzzle solving to exist side by side? I am told that kids will grow up...there will come a time in my life when there are no more family schedules to keep and juggle.

And what will I do to exercise those organizational areas in my brain when I get older and the kids move away? I guess I can start working jigsaw puzzles.

2 comments:

  1. Certainly there will come a time in my life when I will crave the organizational brain workout that solving puzzles provide.

    I don't know if there will EVER be a time in my life when I will crave the brain work out that you speak of. I think the "desire" to work puzzles---jigsaw, crossword, or Sudoku---is a personality trait rather than a "time in life". I can not imagine myself sitting at a table to work a jigsaw puzzle, finding that there are several pieces missing, and searching the house for the one thing that will make my puzzle "complete", only to turn around and break the puzzle up and put it back into the box for someone else to solve at another time. Just doesn't sound fun.

    Yet, when we raise our children don't we do just that? We give them our undivided attention, begin "fitting" them together with the things that will add to their lives, academically, socially, spiritually, etc. Often times we find that there is a piece missing and look frantically for that piece that will make them "complete". And yes, often we find that our children have broken all of the pieces up and began placing them back into "the box" and have decided to fit themselves together in another way. Although they may not look exactly like the picture on the front of the box, they are beautiful and unique. I am right...it just doesn't sound like fun! But for some unknown reason...it is.

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  2. so eloquently said. this should be an added paragraph in my blog.
    your thought processes are so similar to mine.

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