closer to love

there are so many times throughout the day that i am brought closer to love. whether it's at home, work, church. whether i'm happy, sad, grumpy, hyper. whether i'm painting, babysitting, listening to music, running errands with my mom. 

my little sister clare is really into puzzles.  it's one of the few things she could do for hours on end without making a single sound (so naturally, my mom loves buying her puzzles). the one she's been working on lately is a cartoon puzzle of the beatles (early years) on stage, performing.  it's really cool but something that makes it so tricky, aside from being over 500 pieces, is the fact that it's black and white...and a lot of grey.  and as i was hanging out in my living room today, staring at this puzzle and wondering how on god's green earth clare has already put most of the pieces together, my mind started to wander.  i started to compare life, to this puzzle; this black and white beatles 500+ puzzle. i mean you get it in this cute little box, all packaged nice and neat and then you start to root through all the pieces and trying to find ones that fit. and for a while it's a mess. you think this piece goes with that piece but it just looks like it does. once you put it next to the other piece, you realize it's not a right fit. and you do this over and over again until you get a section together...and then you move on to the next section. and slowly but surely, you start to see the end result...this work of art. and you appreciate the picture it's creating so much more than if you were to just see a picture of it because you're the one creating it in a way. you're seeing all the pieces come together to make something beautiful.

my life is a black and white puzzle. it's definitely not as neat and figured out as i originally thought/wanted it to be.  there's some black and white, but there's also a lot of grey. a lot of blurred lines.  i'm very, very slowly but also surely figuring out which pieces go together. and i'm starting to see this beautiful picture unfold. and everytime i complete a section of the puzzle, i'm brought closer to love. i'm realizing more and more that it's not about just the cool, exciting things that happen to me in life that matter or shape me as a person. it's about the little everyday things that count just as much.