Kandra Brown

Life the Puzzle in Time

Life is really not as difficult to understand if we could just see the big picture. Allow me to illustrate my point through the use of my love for jigsaw puzzles. I have always had a fondness for puzzles and mysteries. Growing up my first introduction to words came from my mother, who is an avid crossword puzzle fan. She would say, just find the letters that match in the puzzle to make these words. It was at that moment my fondness for words and problem solving was born. One day in my early twenties, I was in a transitional place in my life, we all have them it’s a normal place to be in during our evolution. It’s a period in your life where one season is ending and your in that “I know I am suppose to be doing something else, but what” moment. During this period I had a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle on my coffee table. I had finished putting the frame together and was starting to fill in the inner pieces. I have come to learn, when I give my conscious mind a task to focus on my subconscious can be heard loud and clear. As I am holding a puzzle piece in my hand, while scanning the already connected pieces to see if this piece is ready to be connected to any of the other pieces, like a thunder bolt crashing against the midnight sky I heard I hear my subconscious voice say “When you see your big picture, you will see the direction your are suppose to go in for this season of your life.” I sat in awe of what I had heard, I looked around to make sure there wasn’t someone else in my apartment. Highlights of my life prior to that moment began playing like I was sitting in my local theater. I was taken back to a time in my life when I was about knee high to a grasshopper. I was watching an 80’s sitcom called “The Jefferson’s.” There was an episode where Louise who volunteered at the “Help Center” was helping a lady who was a prostitute. I believe she was trying to get the lady to change professions, but as I was watching I heard myself say, “that’s what I want to do, help people.” Then the flashback flashed forward and just like adults do, they ask little kids “what do you want to be when you grow up?” My response was child psychologist. The adult seemed impressed, but I had no idea what it was or where I had ever heard the words. I had no idea that years and years later I would begin my journey to becoming a psychologist who would work with at risk youth. Everything I have ever done in my life that has ever given me an intrinsic joy has always been solving problems and helping people find their way. It was at that moment that I realized that I was the puzzle piece in my hand, waiting to be connected to create my big picture. Bells were ringing, whistles blowing, and the sheer excitement of that moment has forever been etched in my mind, leaving me with the understanding that just like the creator of the puzzle in a box I was working on, the creator of life the puzzle in time, created a big picture associated that can be seen through the experiences we experience. Each of us have our own big picture. If you dumped the bag of pieces onto your coffee table, it looked like a confusing mess to he who has yet to be taught the art of putting jigsaw puzzles together. When I compared what I saw to life, it corresponds with the our incarnation. We enter this dimension with a bag of experiences that when put together will give us our big picture. Don’t allow experiences to just lay on your coffee table of life. If you have to have these experiences, why not put it together and see your big picture?