Life explained in a puzzle...

I was fiddling around with this puzzle the other day... This is one of those puzzles that you pick apart piece by piece and then find it almost impossible to put back together again, as happened to a good friend of mine just recently.

As I reflected on this puzzle I became aware that this puzzle in its own way mirrors our lives. How could this be so? ... a few pieces of wood fashioned into some child's amusement piece to idle away a few minutes or hours.


  1. Each piece is important. Every part of this puzzle is essential. Without every piece it would not work, and it could not provide the outcome for which it was created. As is so with us humans. We are all essential regardless of whether we think so or not. I doubt the pieces of this puzzle consider themselves important, nevertheless.
  2. Each piece has a part to play. It matters not what other pieces of this puzzle think about the other, or if they are even aware of them... they all participate in their own way and without all of them there is no fruitful outcome.
  3.  Each part trusts the other to perform. Whether this is done consciously, and in the case of this puzzle that is unlikely, however as humans things happen all around us which must happen for our lives to unfold as they do. Things constantly happen that ultimately affect us and yet we are often blissfully unaware of them... like some unfathomably complex dance that we only see a very small part of.
  4. The puzzle is complete, perfect, exactly as it is. No more is required and no less. 
  5. No comparisons, no judgement. Every piece is required. It is unimportant what size the components are, even the smallest is just as important as the biggest.
  6. The components of this puzzle work as a team. No individual part can complete this puzzle on their own, regardless of their opinion about that or now. This is a team effort and as it is with us humans. Even the most powerful person is just one human.
  7. Each part is oblivious to it's true purpose. The parts in this puzzle have no idea what their true purpose is. Is their purpose to be a piece of wood, maybe to be part of a puzzle, or even amusement for children? And what of our purpose? Could it be that we only know our purpose near to the end of life when we have collected enough experience and wisdom? Or do many of us never know our purpose, just milling around until the universe feels we might as well be harvested as we're not event on the right continent let alone right path!!

There is more...


What if this puzzle was just part of a puzzle set, in a toy box, that was just 1 of 5 such toy boxes. In a family with 3 children each with their own toys, in a road with 20 families, in a town with 10,000 people.... and as we expand ever outwards so each of us becomes a much smaller part of the great enormity which is the universe.

The puzzle pieces have no idea about the scope and scale of all other things... just only what is happening for them... just their purpose... what they are here to do... 

What of us, us humans, do we have more idea?


Well possibly... as we have the capacity to learn, change, transform, analyse, critically think and change our reality with perspective...

But maybe because our options are much greater we become just more confused and our destination even more elusive? 


Where are you on this adventure called LIFE?









Comments

  1. Otis6 May 2020 at 18:10

    I think there is a lot to be said about the analogy you draw from the puzzle! Though-provoking post. Where am I in the adventure of life? Still figuring that out ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris Ogle7 May 2020 at 14:11

      Thank you Otis for your comment... we are both simultaneously "unique and indispensable" and yet completely "irrelevant" in this universe. This simple puzzle helps us to see the perspective in this statement...

      Delete

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