The Missing Piece

By Debbie

On Sunday morning, October 6th Steve and I sat on the red couch…doing our morning routine…and when the time came for journaling he said “here are your choices :

1. The missing piece

2, My right foot

3. Fire ants and other critters

Okay, ya need to know that on Saturday I stepped, ever so briefly, on some fire ants and ended up with 5 pretty nasty bites on my right foot. So I chose, The Missing Piece

I’e never polled jigsaw puzzlers to get a feel for this question. But I do wonder how they feel about nearing the completion of a puzzle to find…one piece missing.

• Do we feel sad that we can’t see the task to completion?
• Do we need some sense of perfection?
• Do we feel cheated and wish, thank you very much, that we could see the whole picture just this once?
• Or do we go, oh well…this was a pretty good puzzle. Take a picture of the slightly imperfect puzzle. Let it sit in all its glory overnight before putting it back in the box for some other puzzlers delight. Offering the warning “one piece missing”. And if we’re particularly helpful we’ll write on the box “one piece missing. Not a border piece”

In the old days I was really disappointed by missing pieces. These days, not so much. I mean, I have plenty of things missing….words when I need them, reading glasses, one of my favorite socks. Yep! The picture is rarely…RARELY complete. But I still love the picture. Just the way it is. Maybe I love it even more for its imperfection.

So yes, puzzling at the kitchen island is a grand distraction and joy for Steve these days. And yes, he came to the end of this puzzle with one piece missing.

But the story doesn’t end there. Actually, it gets bigger!

About things lost and found…as allergy season approaches I find my eyes getting dry and my contacts getting icky. At the end of a long day I sometimes struggle to get my contacts to pop out of my eyes. I know I am not alone!!! Frustrating, right?

On one such day I was taking my contacts out with lots of struggle. Eventually I got them out but lost one before closing the case! This was impossible. But it happened. I looked. Steve looked. I gave up and cooked supper. 2 hours after I lost my contact in the bathroom…and cooked supper…and ate supper…I cleared the table and …what do ya know…my contact was on the tablecloth. Just below the place my dinner plate had occupied!!! How? Don’t know!

And, crazy as this may seem. Steve’s puzzle that went missing one piece…showed up on the same table the next day.

There is a mystery in life. Enjoy it.

It’s a  strange world, …….corporations and social media want our attention. They want to sell us stuff or ideas, and therefore they study us. Observe our habits and our addictions.

For example, I like Pickleball and occasionally late night comedians, so my YouTube feed is  full of late-night comics and National Pickleball tournaments. They notice I ignore all ads except for infomercials where  snake oil sales people are selling exotic ways to renew aging bodies. So they study me and they want my attention. 

Generally for the US population the most compelling desire is to express frustration and anger, where people spend hours listening to other peoples complaints frustration and anger at politicians government or unfairness of any kind and within that context, social media can sandwich product ads or opinion ads. 

So in general, our media world is all about manipulation. It seems to work, because the average person spends 4 to 6 hours, looking at a screen of some sort. So the challenge is to wonder …if our attention is such a valuable commodity… and if we look at it as a commodity, how do we want to spend it? According to the seven spiritual laws, whatever, we put our attention on, grows bigger and bigger, and when we withdraw that attention, it withers and dies

Attention goes hand-in-hand with intention. The world seems to respond to our intentions. Be careful what you wish for.  

When we dream and scheme and say out loud what we want …..strange things begin to happen. 

At first we may be focused on desires, beach trips,  toys,  entertainment. Beneath these wants our desires could shift to something deeper. We  begin to focus on contentment, bird song, flowers,  gardens,  beauty, calmness, family, friends, service to others, detachment, respect, gratitude, and compassion. When we value our attention some great things begin to happen.