The Pause I Keep Forgetting

There are some days where you just need to stop.

And breathe.

Just one breath and then another. No matter what is going on, there is always a moment to just stop, and breathe.

I forget this. Often. I get carried away in my head and my thoughts and forget that I can stop it all and just breathe. That little pause is sometimes all that I need to regroup. Refocus. Come back to me.

I wish I could remember it more often. And more quickly. It's just one little breath and yet it can make all the difference.

I suppose it is just a matter of practice. The more I stop and breathe... the more I will remember to do it. But my system is really much better at tearing off trying to fix this, solve this, complete this, do this... Stopping to breathe seems rather counterproductive. Nothing gets done if one is doing nothing!! And breathing, to my mind, is most definitely "nothing". I mean, yes... breathing keeps us all alive but... other than that... nothing really gets accomplished when you breathe. Errands don't get done. Emails don't get written. Stuff just doesn't get done!

And yet, what am I slowly being remind of is this... sometimes you need to stop in order to get things done. When I am swept up in an efficiency, productivity tear... I can be like one of those hamsters in their little wheel. I get going faster and faster and faster and then a tiny mis-step and "fling"... the spinning wheel spins me off into the dust. Kind of an abrupt reminder that I need to slow-down, stop... and breathe.

But even when I do stop, and retire to Starbucks to "regroup". I often sit here and just scroll mindlessly on Facebook, or the news, or my emails, or Facebook, or the news, or... and on it goes. I get my to-do list organized. I answer emails. But I don't actually stop and... breathe.

For me, writing a blog like this is a way to stop... and breathe. Journaling can be the same. A walk. Sitting on a bench. Looking out a window.

Maybe that is all I am doing here. Not solving anything. Not fixing anything. Not checking something off a list.

Just stopping.

And breathing.

The Big Leap: My First Time Attempting a 2000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

I am a bit of a mad puzzler. I love doing jigsaw puzzles, as anyone who has read some of my previous posts will know! I recently did a post about how puzzling is full of life lessons - get organized, one small step at a time, it's OK to say "No", etc.

Charles Wysocki - 2000 piece puzzle

Usually I do 500 or 1000 piece puzzles. They are a good size and I can do them in a timely fashion (usually). But... a few weeks back, I decided to step up my game and try my hand at a 2000 piece puzzle. I chose a Charles Wysocki (Americana style) puzzle for my first attempt.

Well... let me tell you... the stack of pieces at the beginning was a bit overwhelming! And sorting them took a lonnnngggg time.

But... one group of pieces at a time and it got done. As I was sorting, I noticed a few slightly chewed puzzle pieces go by (perhaps a cat or a dog). I always find this annoying. I bought the puzzle at Value Village for $10 and had hoped to do it and resell it for $20 or $15 (the going rate for a 2000 piece puzzle). But... with slightly chewed pieces, it loses quite a bit of its value. Why not just say that on the box! Ugh. Anyhow... side rant over.

The starting pile of unsorted pieces

There were so many pieces, that some of my sort piles ended up being quite large. I put all houses together, for example. And all greenery. Just to start. Otherwise, I would have had two dozen piles and nowhere to work!

Half of the sorted piles

Soooo... I started working on the sky and then the river... then started the various houses by resorting the big house pile. Ya gotta start with what looks doable! But as all of these pieces started to come together, it quickly became apparent that the table was not going to be big enough. At least not big enough for me to work on it easily. It would have fit width-wise in the middle of the table, but that makes it really hard to reach over and access it.

Halfway done?

Soooo... this was our round oak table with one leaf in it. Time for the second leaf. When we bought this table (second-hand), it came with two leaves... and I never really thought we'd have any use for the second one. Over the years, we have schlepped the second leaf along with us and stored it under beds, in a corner. It's never really been a contender for a declutter list... cause what if we need it "some day"! Well... that "some day" finally came!

I had to break apart bits of the puzzle, and clear a space for the table to be split open but... once we had the leaf in and securely in place... what a difference! Finally, I could finish the bottom edge and start to place things where they belonged in the bottom half! That second leaf makes it soooo much easier to do a puzzle like this. I also have some space to spread out my remaining piles.

Soooo... sometimes those "I might need this some day" items actually do get to be used "some day". Which doesn't meant that a few "some day" items can be let go of safely. But I guess I wonder... how do I know which can be safely let go of? And which can't?

Well... a table leaf is a pretty unique item and kind of hard to replace. It's not like I could have popped onto Marketplace or Amazon and found a leaf that would have fit. Whereas... with that Camino book... if I let that go... it would be super easy to just pop on Amazon and order another one for a minimal amount of money. Sooo... that might be the key... how hard (and expensive) would it be to replace the "some day" item.

As for the puzzle... I did get it finished in a timely fashion!

Completed puzzle (sans a few pieces)

And... on top of about half a dozen slightly chewed pieces, there was one piece missing. At first I thought there were 5 pieces missing, a clump of 4 along the bottom edge... but they turned up stuck on the side of the box. But the single piece... never did show up.

The missing piece

And that is OK. I will release the puzzle back into the wild (thrift stores or give it away for free on Marketplace) and let someone else enjoy it.  But I'll be sure to mark the box and let future puzzlers know that there is a piece missing!