Do you like doing puzzles? In my family, we love them – once a year. At holiday season, we pull out the old card table, spill and spread the pieces in a single layer and attack a piece or two when walking by the table. The walk-by often turns into “half-sitting” with one butt cheek off the chair (“I have other things to do!”) and then the half-sit turns into a full-sit, with both butt cheeks on the chair. For me, I begin to lose sense of time, completely absorbed in the satisfaction of feeling the soft click of putting a key piece into its perfect spot. It’s really fun!
But here’s the key: that only happens as long as I get to refer to the big picture on the box.
Life’s Puzzle Pieces
Unlike puzzles, life is not about clicking pieces into their perfect place. Our individual life picture is not a pre-made, singular image on a box. Every puzzle piece builds on the past but it doesn’t make sense until we see the next piece in our puzzle.
We also inhabit multiple roles over the course of our lives. We are offspring, sibling, mentor, friend, partner, parent, employee, boss, coach, and dreamer. We are the fun one, the nag, the serious one, the organizer, the planner, the spontaneous one, and the partier.
The Many Roles We Play
In addition, we get to live multiple chapters over the course of our lives: kindergarten student, teenager, young adult, first-time-parent, rockstar career moments, hard times, happier times, retirement.
Often these roles and chapters are simultaneous and overlap, making things seem foggy and unclear. But our roles don’t define us, and we are not simply their sum total. They are merely a way to break down our lives into chunks.
So no wonder our lives are not a perfectly fitting puzzle accompanied by clarity and satisfaction along the way. We never have the big or complete picture at any given point. We ‘place’ one puzzle piece at a time, doing the best we can with what we know, at the time.
The Importance of Storytelling
Only as we get older, we can gain a better sense of our own ‘big picture’. When given the opportunity to recount our full life story, we may discover that the ‘puzzle piece’ we thought was no big deal (like our first job as a teenager bagging groceries) was linked to other moments we consider to be ‘a big deal’ (like becoming a vegetarian, going to college, or meeting our best friend). That is what storytelling reveals and what makes our lives unique, rich and colourful!
We’re often encouraged not to look back and to keep…moving…forward (sigh – I’m exhausted already). I get that – most of the time. But for our kids and those who love us, there is a tremendous amount of wisdom to be gained from listening to our stories of the past that made us who we are today. Reminiscing, recounting, and sharing – in our own voices – are some of the most powerful and important ways we can pass on our history and help the next generations learn about you and about themselves. That’s more than satisfying – it’s delightfully meaningful!
Sincerely Yours: Honoring Your Story
Sincerely Yours holds space for you – for you to tell your story in your own words and be listened to – with curiosity and without judgement . The most basic human need is the need to be understood – to feel heard and seen. Sincerely Yours is dedicated to doing that. We curate your narration with photos, home videos and music, making your memories even more vivid and even more understood.
So maybe the puzzle pieces of our lives didn’t click perfectly into place as they happened. In fact, the puzzle analogy may be misleading – it’s more the colourful flow of our lives – like a tree or a storybook. Whatever image works for you, for those listening to and watching your life story unfold, it is remarkable. I urge whoever is reading this article to start thinking about that, before the opportunity is gone.
