In Pieces Pt. 3

I love puzzles.

That's no secret.

I talk about puzzles often.  But that's because I love them.

I had been in England for less than 12 hours and I decided to go for a walk through the town of Harpenden (for the purpose of just going to Sainsbury's and Boots because I could) and I walked passed several charity shops on my way to the post office to exchange money.  Obviously I should just go in.  So I did and I found a 4,000 piece puzzle.  For £3.  (That's like, $5).  I was unsure if I should invest so I walked on.

Then I decided investing was the way to go.

But I couldn't find it again after going through all the charity shops 2 more times so I settled on a 3,000 piece puzzle for...wait for it...99p.  (That's about $1.50)

A quality investment.

So I now have a very large puzzle to do which covers about 1/3 of the floor of my room.

I have to do this particular puzzle a little bit differently then I usually would.

Reason being - there's 3,000 pieces.

I sorted through them all and did the outside edge as is the usual beginning.  For the inside pieces, if I flipped them all over and laid them all out on the floor so I could see them all, I would be ridiculously overwhelmed and I would have no idea where to start. (Plus I wouldn't be able to walk over to my wardrobe...)  It would be hard for me to focus on any one section because then I would see a piece that I would know fits at this other place and then another piece that goes over there and so on.  My mind would be so scattered.

So this time, I first decided to start by separating major colors.  If you can see from the picture, there's a lot of blue pieces: sky, mountain and water.  So I sorted through all the pieces yet again to separate the blue pieces from all the other colors.  Once that was finished, I then started sorting all the blue pieces between ones that just have blue (that part will take, umm, forever...) then the water pieces and water with leaves, and then the blue pieces that have bits of trees and leaves and mountains.  I started to get more and more detailed so I could put them together without being overwhelmed by all the other ones that go elsewhere.  This process will continue until I have it finished.

Now some of you may stop here and think I'm just ridiculous for doing this and loving every moment of it and some of you may be getting frustrated at the thought of taking this on.  Understandable.

But I love it.

There is a great sense of accomplishment when one puts the final piece of a puzzle in place.  When the pieces get put together, I can say that I have successfully achieved something.

God speaks to me when I do my puzzles.  (Read a bit about that in In Pieces Pt. 1.)

Doing these puzzles is how I process things.  It's how I can think through things that are flying through my mind.  It's how I can take the next steps.  And as I do that, I realize things about myself through what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.

I'm in a season right now of really needing to sort through a lot.  When I look at all of the pieces floating around my mind and my heart, it's easy to be overwhelmed at it all because there's just so much and I don't know how to put them all together.  But when I can start to narrow it all down and start to look at the smaller details, it becomes much more manageable and I'm able to focus more.  When one area gets put together, I can then move onto the next because I'll recognize the pieces that then connect to what I just finished.

And the process goes on.  

To some, the separating of puzzle pieces, especially so many, seems like such tedious work that requires patience.  This is true, but if it helps to put the puzzle together without being overwhelmed and stressed, it is well worth it.

I think this puzzle is going to mean a lot more to me than I realize now.  

In doing this, my hope is to actually finish this by the time I leave England in about a month or so.

Challenge Accepted.

Heave To

"Let's heave to and have a swim"

I have heard that phrase several times over the last month or so. (Thank you Captain Jeremy)

I will try to best describe what that means in a language that can be understood by all and not just those who know sailor talk...

Heaving to is the action one would take on a sail boat to stop it's forward motion.  One way in which this action can be taken is to tack (which means to turn the boat so that, for example, the wind coming from the left then comes from the right) but keeping the sails in the front (i.e. the jib) tied down on the same side of the boat, letting the main sail (the big one in the middle) move to the other side on its own and turning the rudder angle into the wind (see picture if it helps...the arrow is the wind direction).  By doing this, all forward motion will stop and you will pretty much just sit there even though the wind is blowing in the sails.

A swim, I think, is pretty self-explanatory, though the means of getting into the water differ from person to person depending on how adventurous they are.  From simply climbing slowly down the ladder (which always takes at least twice as long to actually get in...), jumping off the side, jumping off the very tip of the bowsprit (the long piece of wood at the very front with a net underneath which is higher than it looks when you're out there), or rigging up a rope swing.

We have had some very nice, very calm, sails the last few weeks which I am so very thankful for.  I have never seen such calm water before in my life.  It was beautiful.

It would be just before lunch time and the captain would emerge from his cabin to look out at the beautiful day and say, 'Let's heave to and have a swim.'  

So that's what we would do.
We would stop what we were doing, whether on watch, cooking, cleaning, working, reading, or even sleeping, and go for a swim.  We would enjoy the beautifully clear, blue water then lay on deck soaking in the sunshine.  Lunch would be served on deck and then we'd carry on.

Why do we do that?  Well, first, it's fun.  A lot of fun.  (Except the times when you get a rope burn on your fingers...that stops the fun quite quickly)  But also, we are able to take a break, look out into the open sea where there is no land in sight, switch off for a bit, laugh, have fun, and just be.

I need to do that more often.

It's easy to be constantly going, going, going all the time and never slow down, never stop to look at where you are, never see the beauty around you, never be grateful for the life you have, never just be.

It's easy to always be looking at the destination and the ETA for when you're supposed to get there and that is all that you focus on.  That's all you can see, where you not yet are.  But when you heave to and have a swim, for that hour, those things don't matter and you can enjoy life, enjoy the water, have lunch and relax.

It's a chance to take a step back and just breathe and refresh.

It makes the rest of the journey even better.

Again, I need to do that more often.