I have long thought about how life is a puzzle, and how we only see the piece of the puzzle that we are on. Possibly some bordering pieces, but those are blurry. If we knew how it would all come together, we might wait. Stay stagnant and then possibly not be the version we need to become to move onto the next piece. Future you. And it’s so beautiful to know we each have our own life picture. And if that’s the case, why would we ever compare our puzzle to someone else’s? This analogy could go on and on. What if, in the spirit of envy, you imagined grabbing someone else’s box. Each piece is a life season. An experience. A lesson. Would you want to trade it all? For so much unknown? I hope not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nNote to self: Remember that great quote by Mark Manson (I think): We only envy the lives of those whose sacrifices we do not see.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I was talking with a friend who is going through a brutal breakup. His life is suddenly so different than how it has been and how he envisioned it to be. He has not dated in forever and was asking yours truly all about it. How do you meet people? What apps have you tried? Basically, how does it all work at this stage? As a cheerleader of love, I was trying to be encouraging. He’s not yet ready for the “find the fun” advice. But I shared high level about not being attached to an outcome. Not knowing what role someone will play in your story. In your life. Being open to seeing if it is just a brief walk-on role, or a main character. It made me reflect on those who have weaved in and out of my story, and I in theirs, or the ones that I thought I would never see again, only to be reunited by fate. The mystery of how the pieces come together. Here is where the puzzle analogy falls short. We don’t know what the final picture of life looks like. We don’t know the end game and I think that is so incredible. It’s a beautiful evolving story. With so many seasons. Some of which feel so heavy and difficult, like trying to put a monochromatic blue sky together, and others just effortlessly flow like the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happens when you force a piece? Square peg. Round hole. It’s akin to wishing and hoping. Hoping someone can be what you want them to be, rather than holding space for the one that just locks in. And the ones that come back? Maybe you just weren’t at that section of your life photo where that piece was meant to go there. One of my favorite things I heard years ago was this guy who recommended yelling “plot twist,” when all of a sudden things are not how you thought they would be. I have not yelled this, but definitely have it written as a reminder, on a post-it note, at my desk. We write the story we know and have experienced, but there is such a greater story that is unfolding before our very eyes. And the plot twists can be more sparkly and magical than we can even imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nNote to self: Be where your feet are. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
So rather than trying to predict how it all comes together, savor the piece that you are on. Remain curious. It is only here for a moment and the next move will come in perfect timing. And if we truly knew how it would all come together, we wouldn’t try so much and grow so much and over analyze everything with our girlfriends. And what fun would that be? XO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have long thought about how life is a puzzle, and how we only see the piece of the puzzle that we are on. Possibly some bordering pieces, but those are blurry. If we knew how it would all come together, we might wait. Stay stagnant and then possibly not be the version we need<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2856,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions\/2856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notmyguys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}