Life Puzzle

Authored by: Niesa & Anwar Mc Noo

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST GRACIOUS THE MOST MERCIFUL

"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle. "

-Deepak Chopra-

Have you ever thought of how our single life can be related to a child game?

It is a child game called jigsaw puzzle.

Now imagine hundreds of puzzle pieces, all sprawled out on the floor. We can see that the puzzles come in various shapes and colours, in front of us.

At that time, no picture is yet formed and not even a clue is given. All there is are the pieces. But one thing we know for sure about all those puzzles pieces is that they are all connected, even when it seems impossible, and will soon complete each other to form a lovely picture. It is only a matter of time and arrangement, right? Each of the pieces then slowly falls into their rightful place as we construct it, forming the image. This can also be said about our life. The picture can be compared to our life and it is initially blank the moment we were born, and the pieces are then slowly placed and fit each other as we went through with our life. Those pieces are the choices, the blessings, the memories, the moments and the people that revolve around us. The choices that we make, the blessings that are granted to us by Allah SWT and the memories that are engraved in our minds by the people around us are what make our life as what we know of nowadays.

Yes, to compare such perfect pictures formed by jigsaw puzzles with our life might be too far-fetched as our life might not be as perfect as those picturesque images. The picture formed by us will have holes that are yet to be filled and some pieces might be misplaced through our own mistakes. At times, we may also feel frustrated when things do not seem right. That's normal, but we can choose to be better than ordinary, right? Imperfections can be carefully improved to perfection. Through effort and sheer determination, the mistakes that we made can be fixed. How? One of the ways is by being responsible for our choices and prioritizing our focus. As quoted by Deborah,

"You will have fewer regrets in life if you start focusing and taking responsibility for where you are and where you want to be"

Because the thing that matter is that throughout this journey, lessons are learned. We learn to improve. We learn to be more mature than before. When things go wrong and as we try to get back up, we learn that things happen for a reason and the only thing to do at that time is to try again. When we fall, the only way left is to go back up. During those times, we will also feel grateful for what we have and for the people who care for us, even from afar. Our families, parents, relatives, lecturers, teachers and friends who are always supporting us from behind and not to forget those who always mention our names in their prayers.

Throughout this process, we are all putting together our pieces and every person’s way is different from one another and everyone have their own pace. And the best thing is that, sometimes our own puzzle might be a guide for others to construct their own puzzle. Perhaps it can come from our decisions, the steps that we took, those actions that we did, our own achievements from all the hard work, appreciations that we have prepared for our friends and the words that we spoke. Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that we should do everything at our best! And sometimes, we might need others' examples to guide us in arranging these pieces. They might be our teachers, our friends or our inspirations.

Yup, there are times when we might encounter with some confusing pieces. Shapes and colours might not fit well into our arrangements. But, is giving up our only choice?

Hold your horses peeps.

Keep calm and sit back. Don't rush. How about we try to look at them from a larger perspective. Have a top view. Arrange pieces by pieces. Take our time. Do it in your own way. There are many practical strategies. One of the ways is "I do the edges first and then go for large expanses of colour, but everybody did it in a really different way." As mentioned by  Emma Jenkinson, the winner of the first British Jigsaw Championship. Furthermore, the reason why we are given all of the pieces is because He knows that we have the capability to arrange them, right? As Jem's father mentioned to her in Jem and The Holograms movie,

Never afraid of the unknown.

Never underestimate yourself.

Use your gifts to inspire people.

Finally, from those pieces, choices and decisions that we take in every moment that we have experienced, we will finally have a beautiful picture on the floor. Yes, create the best picture as we can through the given pieces. As another advice from Jem's father in the movie,

Create your own destiny

Be the best version of yourself

And finish the last piece!

Oh and how about playing some real jigsaw puzzles, shall we? Don't forget to share your time records and your game type in the comment section so that we know who the best among you guys is!

Click to this link to start your puzzle! And perhaps you can share some tips on how to achieve the records as well!