Have you ever tried to work a jigsaw puzzle, one of the big ones, with 1000 plus pieces? Ever gotten frustrated trying to make one of those pieces fit into a slot it was not intended to fit in? We’ve all done it, turned the piece left, right, upside down, but no matter, it just won’t fit. And though we know it won’t fit, we just keep trying to make it fit. Why is that? Why do we frustrate ourselves so?
Life is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle, a picturesque landscape that we are all a part of. Each of us is a unique piece, designed to fit in a specific place. Corner pieces don’t fit in the middle, they weren’t created that way. If everyone was a corner piece, the puzzle would be incomplete, its center missing. With only a center and no border, what holds the puzzle together?
Honestly, I cannot tell you where I fit in the puzzle. My life does not resemble that of others around me. I’m 42 years old and have yet to find my niche’. Nothing about me is what I would deem “the norm”. My hair is curly while much of the population’s is straight. The shape of my body differs from the average woman. I married at eighteen while most of my peers waited until their mid to late twenties. College, well, I never finished. Career, what is that? I am a grown woman who loves dolls, the evidence of which is obvious if you set one foot in my house. Social functions make me uncomfortable; I’ve no clue how to work a room. My husband and I did not purchase our first home until a year ago. Anyone sense a pattern here?
Perhaps I do know which puzzle piece I am. The one that seems to fit nowhere, the one that is oddly shaped, different from the others and yet would leave a gaping hole in the finished product were it to go missing. Many tears have been shed in frustration over not being a border piece. There seem to be a lot of pieces that make up the border, pieces that are similar in design and structure. But, I’m not a border. I was not created to be like the other puzzle pieces. I am unique, created with a purpose. There is no other piece like me. And, I am at peace with that.
No doubt, there will always be days that I feel like pimento-less olive in a jar full of stuffed olives but hey, I’m still an olive, right?