Life Puzzle

What if you made a puzzle out of your life? What would it look like?

1. Start first by thinking of the different parts of your life or roles that you play: work; school; home, etc.; or daughter; friend; student; leader--whatever works for you and helps you to reflect on who you are and how you spend your life. In which of the parts do you spend the most time? Size the parts by the amount of time you spend in them.
2. As you start to get a sense for what is there, you might want to choose colors for them based on how you feel about them. Which piece is your favorite? Which gives the most authentic snapshot of you? How much a percentage of your life is spent in that part? In which part are you most aware of God or the Divine?
3. How do the pieces fit together? Are there gaps between the pieces? For instance, is there a huge difference between the way your family sees you and the way your friends see you? Is there a gap between who you are at within a faith community and who you are in your work place? Do some of the pieces move and change while others stay the same?
4. Who are the important people in each of the parts? Do you ever introduce them to one another? If you did--would they get along? Would they at least respect each other?

There is obviously more that any of us can do with this. But taking a bit of time, just to pay attention is the most important part. It begins to make some things clearer. Am I grumpy a lot? Maybe it's because I'm spending 10% of the time being myself and doing what I love and 90% doing what I feel like I have to do. Maybe its because the few people in my life who know and accept me, my gifts, my nature are not accepted by the people with whom I spend most of my days.

Authenticity is sacred. It is the place we can begin to find life and share it. So, if you find your own authenticity in a small percentage of your life....well what does that say? Instead of dancing with lines, maybe we can dance with our authentic selves. In this dance, the steps don't have to have some kind of perfect form--they only need to be ours, really ours.