My husband and I decided we would work on a puzzle together. I hauled out the one I’d made many times with my girls, the one with all the vintage Christmas stamps.
We’ve been married 28 years and yet I don’t remember ever doing a puzzle with him before. As we dove in, I stated what I assumed was obvious–“Let’s find the edge pieces. Make the frame, then we can fill it in.”
He noticed in the middle of the puzzle, there was a frame within a frame, if you will. It was gold. “I’m going to find the pieces with gold, I can see a lot of them easily. I’m not really very good at puzzles, so I want to try it this way”
I started to say, “Well everyone knows…”, but stopped myself short. This was an activity we chose to do together. Who was I to say what the “right” way was?
He found edges and I found gold pieces as we worked, so we helped each other. As I figured out what piece went in each corner, he started building the middle. I started seeing that the frame gave the middle a place and the middle gave perspective to help build the frame.
What I was also so glad to recognize was that another life lesson had been presented. We are in a new phase of listening and communicating, my dear man and I. We need each other’s perspective to build what’s next. There’s no one I’d rather build with.
Have you encountered a life lesson that almost slipped by you? Share in the comments or message me if you’d like.
