Puzzle Reflection Game
The weather in Singapore puzzles me. It has been raining for some reason. So, I spent 4 hours completing a 3D puzzle vase. What a fun indoor problem-solving activity when you can’t go out for a swim or walk because of the rainy days and nights… The great thing about playing puzzles is they provide you with instructions on how to put the pieces together step by step.
Connecting the jigsaw puzzle pieces is similar to how we connect the dots of life. One is linked to another. Instead, you are not provided with a fixed guideline to follow, and that is the thing you have to figure out yourselves.
Skimming through my 2022 Google Calendar month by month, I wonder how I managed to turn all the pieces over, navigate each of them, and build an unexpected end-of-year picture. I did not start by putting the edges or corners of the puzzles to create a fixed picture or goals that I could easily accomplish; the random pieces strangely came to me.
Throughout the past year, I was uncertain how I ended up in some places and met people who show me how to see things through different lenses. It seems that I have missed out on a lot of stuff; it was either due to the pandemic (yeah, use the virus as an excuse) or I was extremely self-enclosed, and I still am…
There were irreversible decisions made. There were personal and family problems that are still unsolved or getting worse. In retrospect, it was a valuable learning journey albeit some of them do not make sense. I just realized the importance of setting boundaries with people; there is a fine line between oversharing and being authentic. Another lesson learned: There are millions of people all over the world and you do not need to force yourself to mingle with all of them. There is more to share, but too long to write here.
Ta-da. Completing the 2022 puzzle set was a fun and stressful project. I hope 2023 will be brimming with versatile activities, like assembling this seamless puzzle piece:
