Garden Colors

I laid awake last night thinking about the nice day I had, as the wind was howling and rain was pelting away at the window. In 48 hours the weather had gone from freezing to the warm 50's and now the temperature was plummeting again.  I had actually been able to take a walk outside yesterday.  But, once again I awoke this morning to snow on the ground and the temperatures in the low 20's.  I thought last night as I laid there how an on-line jigsaw puzzle reminded me of the wind and my life.  The name of it was the Garden Colors.  It was like a whirlwind of colors.

I have worked a lot of on-line jigsaw puzzles over the past year.  It is a way for me to calm my mind and distract me from the many challenges I have had to face. Most of the puzzles I have solved have been of flowers. The Garden Colors was different and proved to be quite a challenge.  I have been working on it for over a month. It was like the colors had been splashed onto a canvas and swirled.  The challenge was not being sure of where the pieces connected. Some puzzles you can tell by the scenery where a piece will connect.  I was thinking that at times I didn't know where the events of my life connected together. Sometimes I feel very uncertain about the future and whether my life makes any sense at all.

It took me over a month to complete the puzzle as some of the pieces laid over to side unable to connect  anywhere I tried them. The predominant royal blue color was not wanting to connect.  There seemed to be a lot of it with no place to fit.  I almost gave up on it, but I do love a challenge. So, I gathered the royal blue pieces and put them together.  Then I slid them into the picture, and as if by magic they swooshed into place and I heard a little click.  At one point I had thought there must have been a mistake and the pieces belonged to another puzzle, but I was proved wrong.  It was a moment of peace and I was glad I had not given up.

I showed the puzzle to my husband as I wanted to share the beauty of it.  I thought about how the challenge of it was like the debate we had over the weekend.  Sometimes in life there are royal blue moments when we have different opinions that don't seem to fit into our own jigsaw of life.  I like the fact that my husband and I can have those debates. Sometimes we never see eye to eye, but we are strong enough to come to a compromise and see that our puzzle together clicks.  The many pieces of our life have made us stronger.

The last couple of years of our life have been filled with a lot of new people that have helped us.  They have at times seemed as if they did not fit.  But, my husband and I now see a greater understanding of these people and a puzzle that has developed to fit together.  They are like garden colors or  royal blue pieces that clicked into place.  Life is beautiful !!!

Les couleurs de jardin ont quitte mon epirit a la paix.

Elizabeth