Act When the Universe is Open and Rest When She is Closed
I love puzzles. The feel of the pieces, the colours, the shapes and the sense of accomplishment when the puzzle is finished. This Christmas I worked on a puzzle that I had selected because I thought it would be easy to do. I wasn’t looking for anything particularly difficult because, let’s face it, this hasn’t been the easiest year for any of us. My daughter got the puzzle out of the box on Christmas evening, right after the supper’s dishes were done, and we got started. She helped for a little while and then I was on my own. It turned out to be one of those puzzles where all the pieces were oddly shaped and didn’t seem to fit even when they did. I would get pretty far into the puzzle and then forget to cover it and the cats would destroy it in the night and I would have to rebuild it all over again. The only bonus was the pieces were usually sort of in place and I had built it once or twice before, so I had some memory of how all the pieces fit together.
Slowly but surely the puzzle started to come together, and I loved the mountain scene it was creating. Bears, an Eagle, a big deer, geese, lots of flowers, red leaves, and an Elk with a cabin came into shape. There were a few days when the cats had destroyed the puzzle for the fourth and fifth time when I almost gave up and put the puzzle back into the box, but I like to finish what I start so I begrudgingly kept going.
Yesterday, a project many of my colleagues and I have been working on for months was postponed due to the ongoing pandemic and the new Omicron variant. We had been pushing really hard to replace people who were sick and hoping we could sneak the filming of this project into the window just before this epic wave took hold in Alberta. Unfortunately, this variant was faster than we were and the very difficult decision was made to postpone the project. I was really sad when the decision was made to postpone and that actually surprised me a little. I wasn’t surprised I was sad, I was just surprised by how gut wrenchingly sad I was. My friend Janice summed it up perfectly when she called it ‘a collective grief’ because of all the challenges we have had to navigate through this last couple of years and how this postponement was just another roadblock to wrap our minds around. Then the phone calls, texts and messages came through and the realization that once again, while we can’t be together to create right now, we are far from being alone. One particularly beautiful video message was sent by my dear friend Madeline that had me ugly crying and releasing all of my stress into a puddle onto the floor. Thank you for that Madeline. I will never be able to repay your kindness. There are angels in this world.
Towards the end of the day, my daughter and her boyfriend started to work on the last really hard bits of the puzzle. I sat down with them and we finished the puzzle together in no time at all and it was beautiful.
Today, I was thinking about Will Smith’s Autobiography Will. I read this book, or actually listened to the audiobook as I drove my daughter to and from gymnastics, just before Christmas. He has a beautiful chapter on Surrender towards the end of the book where he is describing the Ocean and its power. He writes:
‘I settled into the acceptance of my powerlessness which strangely liberated me. Surrender had always been a negative word for me. It meant losing or failing or giving up but my burgeoning relationship with the ocean was exposing that my sense of control was actually an illusion. Surender transformed from a weakness word to an infinite power concept… Stopping was equally as powerful as going. Resting was equally as powerful as training. Silence was equally as powerful as talking. Letting go was equally as powerful as grasping. Surrender to me no longer meant defeat…The surfer and the ocean are a team.’
“ Act when the Universe is open and rest when she is closed.”
What a great message. So my path right now is to rest while the Universe is closed so I will be able to act when the Universe is open again. I still like puzzles and I will not be giving up on them anytime soon.
Happy New Year! May 2022 bring light, love and joy into all your lives.