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I’m back to my #joyfulgiving campaign, and tonight I feel like I just got a sign that I am on the right track.
During COVID, I’ve taken up jigsaw puzzling with gusto. Actually, it’s become my to do thing. When I’m stressed, or feeling the self doubt or hit a wall, I do a few jigsaw pieces.
When I do jigsaw puzzles, I see it as a bit of a metaphor for my business journey. It seems super hard at first, and while I know my vision, not everyone can see it. Hubby thinks I am super crazy with the bigger jigsaw puzzles, and he doesn’t really get into it until I’m well on my way to getting it sorted.
As I chip away at my jigsaw puzzles at it piece by piece, it begins to take shape. I never know how it will play out. Some days I get a good run and the pieces just fall into place, other days it won’t. And I can never predict which pieces I will find next.
Increasingly, I’m opting not to start with the border edge. Controversial, I know! But when it’s just one piece next to each other, it is easy to get it wrong – especially if the jigsaw puzzle is made from flimsy pieces. Eventually, I worked out how the blocks of color fit together. Doh! Why didn’t I see that earlier? When it’s all done, it seems super easy.
My neighbour in the apartment downstairs gave me this 1,500 piece puzzle of Starry, Starry Night. As soon as I saw it, I wanted it. But it was such a bitch of a puzzle. I shouldn’t use gender derogatory language, but really, it was hard. It took perserverance. So many pieces looked the same – similar colours and swirling patterns. Hubby hated it. “I don’t like this modern shit,” he declared. He prefers distinct colours and shapes, not this shifting stuff.
But I loved it. I was doing it doing the depth of winter when I lot of things were uncertain. Finishing this was such a feeling of triumph. I still remember how good it felt to put that last piece in!
Fittingly, I gave this away to someone at the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). Somehow we’d had a discussion about jigsaws online, and she told me how much she had enjoyed this one when she saw it during an exhibition in Canberra last year. I think this sort of puzzle solving is great for budding entrepreneurs as it teaches resilient and different ways of seeing things.
But back to my recent jigsaw puzzle.
This one was flimsy and also tricky due to the amount of similar colours and shapes. I put it onto my local Buy Nothing project. A lady came and collected it – someone who I have gifted things to before, and who has even dropped things off at my place. And then, I got tingles.
“I used to do this jigsaw as a child with my grandmother,” she said. “I remember all those pieces being so hard to put together as it’s not such good quality.”
Maybe, just maybe, Nana is listening with my whole pledge to honour her with my joyfulgiving campaign. In any case, it feels love to be on the karma journey again.
And there was another jigsaw puzzle I gave away to my neighbour next door. Actually, I gave her two – and one she gave me back as she was moving. But I’ll put down three.
#Joyfulgiving
- Jigsaw puzzle – The Fruit Dealer
- Jigsaw puzzle – Starry, Starry Night
- Jigsaw puzzle – Outback Australia photo with termite mounds
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