Your Life as a Sacred Puzzle
“Build your life just as you would a puzzle. Piece by piece. Section by section. You may get bored at times, or frustrated, or feel as though you’d rather give up. What you must do, however, is know that the pieces are all there, and the more ways you try to place them where they belong, the more connections you discover. Soon you begin to visualize and discern images as they come together to form the overall vision of your life. ” Donna Labermeier
Your Daily Life
Life can be so routine! Get up, morning duties, off to work-away or at home- spend most of the day trying to be productive, time out for eating, meetings, trying to meet deadlines, dinner, maybe more work, exhaustion, bed and too little sleep.
Next day repeat the process.
And if you have children, that’s a 24/7 responsibility along with everything else!
If you’re retired, you’re busy paring down and cleaning out, visiting grandkids, and doing so many other things that you wonder how you ever fit work into your schedule before.
And if- somewhere in that chaotic schedule- you find a free moment, you must wonder…
Is this all there is? Is this craziness what life is all about? This bee-hive busyness, this ultra-hyped existence? This no time for rest, and relaxation, for joy and pure pleasure, for just flat-out enjoying life?
Question- Is that labyrinth of “musts” and “to-dos” really why you are here? Are all the temporary and physical things the reason why you exist?
“Everyone is driven by the need to fill their life with meaning. Sometimes this need is articulated clearly and then a purpose emerges and that leads to a sense of direction and a sense of mission.
Most times it is not.
So the void is filled with action. People have kids, gets mortgages, raise families, pay bills, go to work each day without asking why and then, some day, they die.
Sometimes all this is enough. Many times it’s not.
Action fills the void nicely. Makes each day feel tiring. But without a sense of purpose. Without a sense of vision, it leads to a pattern of behavior that doesn’t lead anywhere. Most times we die before we realize this of course.”― David Amerland
Your Worldview and Personal Sense of Purpose
Most days are so filled with things to do that there is rarely time to think deep thoughts about the meaning of life. Nevertheless, we often have a nagging sense that there must be something more than this. And never more so than at transition times like leaving home, starting a new job, getting married, having children, retirement.
Even more, questions about the purpose of life come when we lose a friend, or loved one. Being reminded of our own mortality can often require us to analyze our lives and seek a deeper meaning for our very existence.
Psychologist William Sheldon found that our minds crave orientation and a sense of right direction even more than sex, power, and a desire for possessions. Consequently we try to improve the fit between our worldview and ourselves. Where do we fit in? A good fit would be one where the world and life make sense. A poor fit results in a sense of meaninglessness, anxiety and alienation. When the fit is good, you know you belong.
“The Ultimate supports (you), and the knowledge that it does, produces a wholeness that is solid for fitting as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle into the wholeness of the All.” Huston Smith, Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief, p. 26
What We’ve Lost
Somewhere along the line, we have lost our sense of being connected to the sacred and have abandoned our spirituality.
We’ve put our energy into building relationships, and choosing a vocation and lifestyle.
Some have abandoned a spiritual path because religious communities or beliefs caused harm or abuse, or we didn’t find the doctrines and practices meaningful.
And yet, when we find something missing in our lives- some sense of an inner emptiness, or questions about our direction in life and how we can make our time here important- we hesitate to step back into the arena of religion as we once experienced it, or seem to now understand it.
After all, God, the Infinite, the Cosmic Mind, whatever you choose to name the Other- can’t be scientifically proven, so how can you even know if God exists?
Know this- No one has yet ever proven that God doesn’t exist.
Some people are inherently afraid of questioning anything about religion or faith or even spirituality. Truthfully, doubts are a sign of growth and that you are using your own mind to find answers for yourself.
And here’s where seekers often trip up. Wanting to somehow rediscover their spirituality, they revert to seeking outside themselves- So they try retreats or workshops, visit various churches, temples, ashrams, go to hear speakers, try meditation and yoga centers, and so forth. 
But the outside exploration can bring disappointment and even confusion.
And Here’s Why.
The inner drive for the sacred is coming from within you, not from without. And the way to address that craving is not outward search, but inward rumination, and profound thinking.
Any spiritual growth will come from the deep-seated essence of you- from your internal being. And sadly, so many people don’t have a clue how to get beyond surface thinking. Consequently, so much of today’s living is utterly superficial!
In most cases a renewed spirituality doesn’t descend like some golden beam on your head. You can’t just sit back and wait for something to happen. You have to actively engage yourself with the questions, wonderings and doubts.
“We all encounter things that may seem dim and puzzling at first, but when we actively explore them, we find bold, undauntable light igniting the way from the inside. From within.”― Kayla Severson, Nature’s First Gem is Green
Scaling the Mountain
It takes courage and patience to enter into a spiritual exploration, because you will be dealing with a lifetime of hurts, misunderstandings, painful memories, old, deep-seated images and thoughts about God, who you really are and your life experiences.
While in the process you may need to struggle with certain religious beliefs you’ve been taught, or somehow acquired.
It’s a true breaking out of the religion box that has enclosed you knowingly or unwillingly.
Why even bother if the journey is so difficult? It’s because something is prodding you, nudging you to move forward, pushing you to stretch and expand and grow, thrusting you out of your comfort zone, like a mother eagle. Check out this video.
For some, it’s a quiet wondering, and a gradual opening of eyes and mind. For others it can become a great hunger, a matter of extreme importance and need. Put me in the latter category!
Sometimes it’s difficult to know if the spiritual journey is coming by your choice, of if the prodding is of divine origin.
It doesn’t matter. It’s a signal that the time is now.
A Spiritual Journey Analogy that Might Help.
The definition of the word puzzle is as follows:
To challenge mentally- to exert oneself over a problem or situation- to attempt a solution by ingenuity, guess work, or experiment, to perplex, confound, be difficult to solve- to deal with uncertainty-
“A fruitful approach (to the journey) would be to call on our intuitive, holistic, and relational abilities, which allow us to see relationships among separate parts and understand how they come together to make a whole.
Using this approach to a puzzle, we first would sort out the straight pieces and build the frame. Then we would work on the puzzle in sections, working from the best-defined sections to the least-defined.
Eventually the clusters would be large enough for us to make connections between them. Finally, we would fill in the remaining spaces, thus completing the puzzle
Rarely do we complete a puzzle at one sitting. Usually, we work on it for a while- often until we get stuck- and then take a break for “real” life. When we return, the puzzle is still there…and we immediately see where other pieces belong.
Spiritual deepening happens in this way. It starts and stops; it grows as a result of events in our lives when we are not paying attention. It is always there, even when we are involved elsewhere. We can come back to it at any time…Though we never complete the puzzle, we come to value the working of it as an activity itself.” Peg Thompson, Finding Your Own Spiritual Path: An Everyday Guidebook p. 14-15.
The Puzzle Border
The border provides a framework or foundation- a marked and allotted space in which to work.
Some people begin the journey becoming a spiritual shopper- trying out so many pathways that there is no cohesion or continuity in the search.
For your framework, consider how much or little time you plan to spend on this journey- large blocks of time or smaller more accessible time periods. What will you do during that time? Meditate? Read? Think deeply? Research? Try a spiritual discipline like prayer or fasting? Journaling?
We so often find comfort in building up the corners and the borders but very rarely do we adventure in the middle of the puzzle. We’d rather work little by little holding on to our safe border and only move towards the center when the pieces are still in touch with our borders or roots. Virgil Kalyana Mittata Iordache
Moving into the Puzzle Center-
Some people work by constantly consulting the picture of the puzzle on the box- a need to know exactly what the picture looks like when finished.
Are you someone who needs to know exactly how this journey is going to turn out, and so need reassurances?
Or can you proceed without worrying or trying to synch your efforts with the final picture?
It helps to know this about yourself!
Now with your border, or framework constructed, you start to work inwards toward the center.
In a puzzle, basically one starts to group together similar colors, working in smaller sections until those sections can be hooked up with others.
The easier, better defined sections get done first, with the harder ones usually worked on later.
Your spiritual journey is similar. Put some order in your experience.
What are some of the more easy questions you have? Work on them for a while and see where they lead you. Do they lead you to a different group of questions? Pursue them.
“We need not avoid our active lives, but simply bring to them a new vision and shift of gravity. For in the center we are rooted in God’s love. In such a place there is no need for striving and impatience and dashing about seeking approval.”
― God’s Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved
One of the easiest ways to keep track of these “wonderings” is by journaling. Write down your question and then about what conclusions you have arrived.
“The questions we don’t ask become the puzzles we don’t solve.”
― A.J. Darkholme, Rise of the Morningstar
Soon you will start to see connections and groupings, and a deeper understanding will unfold.
Those larger clusters start to hook up, and then you start to fill in the other missing pieces.
There are 2 Ways of Looking at This Allegory
- One is that the spiritual puzzle is a life-time journey, we add to it continuously, but essentially we will never fully finish it here on this earthly journey.
- The second way is that the journey can be seen as a series of puzzles, each one completing a certain amount of acquired musings, and then moving on to the next.
Personally, I don’t think it matters which way you see it, as long as the pattern of connections is understood.
“Every piece is equally important and it gets handed to you at a time where you have at least some matching piece. That doesn’t mean you should only focus on one point or piece and limit your possible connections. Spread out and you will find even more connections. The truth of the puzzle information comes in different shapes and colors but in the end it’s all connected. Information might be divided, spread out in different areas, different people, different experiences. What’s important to remember is that every piece is meant for you. You might throw it on the side now and use it later, but it will forever remain a part of your bigger picture. Work on your puzzle, with patience and care in moving forward and with a hopeful spirit that it will all work out in the end for your highest good!” Virgil Kalyana Mittata Iordache
Call to Action
Never kept a journal before? Journaling is much different than writing in a diary. Christina Baldwin says, “Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” “Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.” So said Isaac Watts.
Frankly, I don’t think you need to journal every day, but at least once each week. It’s one sure way of keeping a record of your thinking progress.
It’s important to physically write rather than use your laptop or computer. There is some kind of undefinable connection that results when you write by hand.
And be honest! This journal is for you alone.
So…get yourself a lined, or unlined journal book, and just start. Always date your entries. And you can include articles or poems, or drawings, or whatever is meaningful to you at the moment.