A jigsaw puzzle.
I decided this as I was doing a jigsaw puzzle over the holidays, my first since I was a child and the first ever where there were 1,000 pieces.
One thousand teeny tiny pieces that make up a superb Aboriginal dot painting by Natalie Jade called My Great Grandmother’s Country II. I found it at the amazing Journal of Something through the #buyfromthebush campaign.
Anyway, as I unpacked it, I had no idea where to start. I felt a bit lost until I found a piece with a straight edge and it dawned on me that I should attempt to do the border first.
It took a while, I have to admit, but when that border was finally completed, it gave me a sense of the scale and difficulty of what was to come. It was a solid foundation from which to work from.
I then started to sort pieces into colours, trying to group them to make it easier and to give some sense of order. My attention to detail and need to be organised were clearly made for this craft!
As I progressed, I was often convinced I had the right piece, but it just wouldn’t fit.
Or I had the right piece, I just had it around the wrong way and only figured it out when I came back to it and saw it from another angle.
Quite a few times I wanted to stop. It was too hard.
But yeah, I kept on going and sometimes I was on a roll and it felt great, pieces snapping into place and the beauty of the artwork taking shape. I found myself punching the air with delight a few times.
Other times, I couldn’t see the pale pink dots for the slightly paler pink dots and found if I walked away and had a break, everything was so much clearer when I returned. Note to self: really need to do this more in life, too, instead of constantly forcing myself to complete something at once.
As I was working on the puzzle, I wondered who first created such a thing. Who came up with the idea of slashing an image into hundreds or thousands of pieces with different edges and curves and then putting it all back together again?
Who knew it could actually be such a wonderful way to spend time and clear the brain of all worries.
You know, I wish I could say what it felt like to put the last piece in, but I still haven’t finished it!
Life got busy and it’s sitting on my dining room table, beckoning me to return! I will soon and can’t wait to complete it and then frame it.
It has taught me a lot, this puzzle, and I’m grateful.
And now, I can’t write my first blog for 2020 without expressing my overwhelming sadness and heartache at the devastating bushfires and incomprehensible losses to life, property, land and animals. My heart goes out to everyone who has and is suffering so much.
Until next time, Carol & CCx
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