Fairway
LEARNING
Where people & learning matter
What is the point of a Jigsaw? Well for some it’s an escape from the day to day, or simply a challenge to complete. It can be a way of spending time with family and friends. It can just be fun for the sake of it.
It also can be a very good way of creating a metaphor for life at the moment.
When you receive a Jigsaw for the first time you are instantly drawn to the image on the front of the box. The completed picture in all its shining glory. A vision of things to come.
Then you open the box to find a clear plastic bag full of one thousand or more single pieces all looking exactly the same. A sigh, a deep breath and now it begins.
So what’s your preferred strategy?, assuming you have one. You know what the goal is (it’s the picture on the front of the box) but how are you going to get there? Are you a “let’s get all the corners and edges out of the box first” type. Or do you organise into colours or shapes? Do you cluster them into pieces with words on and distinct shapes. Do you have a special jigsaw board to lay it out on. Do you use old takeaway containers to segregate your pieces. Do you lay them all out face up?
There are so many choices, approaches and options. And they are all ours to choose, but having so many options can sometimes be part of the problem. What you do have is a picture to complete and all the pieces in the box ready for you to start…(assuming the dog hasn’t eaten one yet)
Currently we are dealing with Isolation. Some are calling it Lockdown, others prefer Stay Safe at Home. It all boils down to the same message- stay in one place and only go out to exercise, shop for food or travel to work if you cannot work from home. These are not choices- these are instructions so we don’t have to choose.
The only thing we can choose is how we react to it and how we let it impact us. The pieces of the jigsaw are there for us but we don’t have a clear picture on the front of a box. We don’t know what we are trying to make. We don’t know what the future will look like and we don’t have a timescale to work to.
So what CAN we do with this jigsaw we have been given?
How about you create your own future picture of the completed jigsaw? Why not take the pieces you have been given and lay them how you want?. Decide how each piece is going to fit together. This is the jigsaw of opportunity.
The ‘Stay Home’ piece- what can you do at home? DIY jobs, get fit, connect with family and friends again, read?
The ‘Only go out for essential shopping (food) or exercise’ piece- What to cook?, what to try, what treats? Walk, run or cycle?
The ‘Work from home if you can’ piece- What can I do for work at home, how does it feel to be home NOT at work, what can I use this time to learn, what decisions can I make about how I work in the future?
The Jigsaw is yours- how you choose to use it and what it looks like is up to you.
And no one said you can’t keep changing the picture or adding more pieces. Just don’t leave the pieces in the box…….get them out and start making your picture, your future.
Just keep them away from the dog!
