I never enjoyed puzzles. Perhaps I mistrusted them, seeing all their many pieces sprawled out and disconnected. What if the little cardboard pieces wound up missing or were never included in the first place? What if I was never able to make the pieces hold onto each other and create the full picture like the box showed?
Worse, what if there wasn’t enough time to connect the puzzle pieces? I’ve worked on a lot of puzzles recently, mostly jigsaw balancing acts, but also anxiety crosswords forever trying to guess what the missing word (or meaning) is. Impossible math puzzles with no result that is good or makes sense, and corn mazes with friends as we discover the end together.
Regardless of if the puzzle is completed or not, sometimes we run out of time. We can not dedicate all hours of sunlight to the puzzle and besides, I don’t really want to. Ends will creep up and some pieces might be left behind in the box. Ends are very disrespectful of our personal deadlines, but I applaud them for sometimes setting me free.
You can start working on the next puzzle if that last one has exhausted you, and yes, even if you’ve spent hours and hours trying to make it work without completing it. It is never a waste to put time into something you care about; a hobby of your affection, or friendship, or passion. It is okay to liberate yourself from perfection, being the savior, and trying to make it work.
I’m learning to trust the process, to know that regardless of my apprehensions, the puzzle will work out if it’s meant to. I will find that by the end, those pieces will have a place and no matter what, there will be some form of an image looking back at me.