Our bookshelves are one of our most prized possessions. Unfortunately, it also becomes an easy place to put something that has no place of its own. Right now our bookshelf is stuffed with a few extra including board games, a yellow roll of felt containing our Christmas puzzle, a super-glue-repaired glass light fixture waiting for replacement, and a hand me down fish and his (or her?) container of food.
It all spoils the view of our lovely books but the puzzle is particularly irksome. Rolled up in the felt puzzle holder is probably 100 connected pieces out of the 1000 piece puzzle. We completed most of the edges and a had a good start on various parts of the castle. We also sorted pieces into forest, sky, and mountains. We are by no means puzzle experts so our progress wasn't quick and always faced the threat of our one-year-old who loved to get her fingers on those little pieces and the run away as fast as possible. Since the end of the holidays we haven't unrolled it once. It just sits and the shelf and taunts us, unfinished. We'll soon have to make the important decision: pack it back into the box (probably never to be seen again) or wait until the kids are asleep and start hammering away at the puzzle again.
It gets me thinking about other bits of unfinished business. I know I am getting too deep when I start writing emails to myself with "to do" lists or decide to take on a major house cleaning project in order to avoid what I really need to get to (I think I was a lot more helpful around the house while in graduate school). It seems so easy to leave those loose ends dangling when there is nothing compelling me to tie them up. Yet, it's so satisfying to really wrap something up or even, if need be, to just let it go. So what other unfinished business do I need to get to?
Perhaps I'll start with the puzzle.
It all spoils the view of our lovely books but the puzzle is particularly irksome. Rolled up in the felt puzzle holder is probably 100 connected pieces out of the 1000 piece puzzle. We completed most of the edges and a had a good start on various parts of the castle. We also sorted pieces into forest, sky, and mountains. We are by no means puzzle experts so our progress wasn't quick and always faced the threat of our one-year-old who loved to get her fingers on those little pieces and the run away as fast as possible. Since the end of the holidays we haven't unrolled it once. It just sits and the shelf and taunts us, unfinished. We'll soon have to make the important decision: pack it back into the box (probably never to be seen again) or wait until the kids are asleep and start hammering away at the puzzle again.
It gets me thinking about other bits of unfinished business. I know I am getting too deep when I start writing emails to myself with "to do" lists or decide to take on a major house cleaning project in order to avoid what I really need to get to (I think I was a lot more helpful around the house while in graduate school). It seems so easy to leave those loose ends dangling when there is nothing compelling me to tie them up. Yet, it's so satisfying to really wrap something up or even, if need be, to just let it go. So what other unfinished business do I need to get to?
Perhaps I'll start with the puzzle.
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