Puzzles

It would seem as though understanding yourself is like putting together a puzzle. Some people have a more difficult time than others, so for them their puzzle is a 10,000 piece puzzle with very few distinguishable pieces; and for others who find it easier to understand yourself their puzzle is like those 10 piece Disney puzzles you play with as a two year old.

There is a very satisfactory feeling when you finish putting together a puzzle, especially if you found that puzzle a challenging one. You get to take a step back and look at what you figured out, to marvel at yourself for putting it all together.

Other times you can’t figure out how to force the pieces of the puzzle to take the shape of the picture their supposed to. No matter how hard you try, it doesn’t work. Sometimes people give up on the puzzle in this situation, perhaps they take what they put together apart and store the pieces away and come back to put them all back together later.

But most frustrating when putting together a puzzle is when you think you put it all together only to find there are pieces missing. You spend so much time looking back and forth between the picture on the box and the pieces in your hand as you put them together to match the image you want to make of them. You applaud yourself for finishing the puzzle in anticipation of the coming cathartic feeling when you put that final piece in. Only to be left wondering: Did someone take some pieces of my puzzle? Did I give my pieces away? How did I lose the pieces to my puzzle without even realizing it? Have I lost the pieces completely and the puzzle is a lost cause? Or perhaps can I get the pieces back?

Today I went to the gym instead of running outside. Not a fan. If going to the gym is an ice cream cone then running outside is like a banana split with all the fixins on it, just so much better. I ran on the treadmill for 3 miles before doing some weights. It's amazing how much easier I find the treadmill now than I did a year ago. Perhaps its my efforts at maintaining a more positive outlook, or perhaps it's just the fact that I've been far more consistant in my running than last year; but I now feel like I'm going slow when I run on a treadmill at 9 miles per hour, whereas before I felt like I could barely handle going 7 miles per hour.

Nazzer