THE ART OF JIGSAW PUZZLES (or life)
The premise: Life’s like a jigsaw puzzle (and we’re kind of a putty piece).
Humans Building a Jigsaw puzzle (let me take a photo).
As I have interacted and put together some jigsaw puzzles (most of them finished by some friends), I've come to realize the following acts and their resemblance to our daily lives.
ACT I PICK A PUZZLE
ACT II GATHER SOME FRIENDS TO BUILD IT
ACT III TAKE IT OUT OF THE BOX
There is a mess; you don't even know where to start, but we have plenty of ways to do so. According to the puzzle at hand, we can categorize pieces by colors and their shades, shapes, and so on. But there's an easy way to start from the outside to the inside, as with life (it's easier to change the outside that influences the inside than the other way around; any of them starts the virtuous cycle).
Just Begin, and the more pieces we put together, the easier and clearer it gets. (momentum)
A magical thing about life that differs from jigsaw puzzles is that we can become shapeless and adapt to what life presents itself to us or as we dim pertinently through the comes and goes of life and culture.
ACT IV FINISHED
As it comes to an end and we put our last piece without even realizing it, we can look back to it, zoom out, and discover the full picture (each piece is an action, and so is life).
ACT V SHARE IT OR KEEP IT
We can glue it and hang it on the wall or put it back in the box so that others or us in another life can build it again. Your choice.
AS IN BUILDING A PUZZLE, AS IN LIFE; the following make it easier:
1. Just begin; you'll gain clarity along the way.
2. If you don’t know how to start, go by the known perimeter and then build from the outside in.
3. Pick a random area and start
4. Have an anchor reference for what you’re building (the box, your vision, or inspirations)
5.It’s better together
6.Create a tailored system to build your life or puzzle (it won’t be the same system for Van Gogh’s starry night than to build a Kandinsky puzzle).
7. At the end, you choose what to do with it.
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Published on Monday, June 22, 2026
Written on Wednesday, May 6, 2026
