Puzzle Pieces

Puzzles can be metaphors for many things, but they work really well for the analogy of small pieces making up a bigger picture. With each small piece you can't necessarily tell what the overall image is going to be, it takes a couple of pieces together to start to form the begins of the picture. Sometimes a section to the right of the puzzle forms and then a section in the bottom corner. Slowly things come together.

It can take a long time to get the whole puzzle of our lives together, in fact it pretty much takes an entire lifetime and maybe then some to get it all completed. But what I am fast learning is that each of us can take away some happiness even from the partial sections of the puzzle that are beginning to come together.

I think most recently I can apply this concept into my life through a health stand point. I am no doubt far from perfect in the eat healthy, work out everyday mind set, but today was one of those days that I notice a small section of my puzzle coming together. At work our offices get cleaned once every other week and I can usually monitor what week it is by how much my trash is full. For a while I was eating out a lot at lunch but for the last while I have been working on improving dislike of preparing meals to bring to work.

I have eaten out very little in the recent past and it definitely reflected the hard work that I have been putting into making that change in my life. When the janitor came in to clean my office this morning my trash was less than 3/4 full. Usually when I eat out more often it it compacted at least twice by my foot and still overflowing but not this time. A sound purchase in some snapware, doing more dishes at home and staying in some nights to cook food to last a couple of days has lead me to better health and a positive step towards saving the environment from my trash.

It may not be a big section of my puzzle it may not even be all that important but it is the small pieces that make up the larger puzzle, and rejoicing the small and simple things is what is going to help get us all through until we are able to see the bigger picture and how beautiful that is.

12 Miles to Victory

Saturday was definitely a day to remember. Our branch did our Annual Relief Society (Branch) Hike for Big Basin to the Sea. Everyone who had been on the hike before said it was fun and mostly downhill, even if it hadn't been I was ready for the challenge, well that is until I saw the following sign.

If only I had known before hand

Strenuous is not necessarily a word you want to hear on a Saturday morning, not to mention that by the time I had seen this sign our group was well on the way AND the cars that transported us up to Big Basin had already gone away. So basically by the time this sign came around there was no going back. 

Sis. Burgon being a rebel

Berry Falls

By the time we reached the waterfall and had our snack I was glad for the time to rest and stretch out my knees. Plus to get a little bit of food in my stomach. It was a beautiful view and a great place to stop and reflect and converse for a bit.

There should be a law against hiking and taking photos, I almost fell of the side

The ride home

The camera cut out the thumbs up she was giving

After all the hard work, and some very hardcore aches and pains, we finished our 12 mile hike, had a bar-be-que and as you can see some people needed a little nap on the ride home. But we all made it in one piece and I know that although I could barely move the day after, I had accomplished something that I could look back on for proof of my personal strength and something I knew would make my body stronger.