THRUSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Good Evening,

I was thinking about the title of my new book, "The Puzzle". You may want to know how I chose the name and more importantly, why? he how is pretty straight forward. I was thinking of a word that all at once would give meaning and at the same time tie the whole idea of the individual and we bring our lives into the light of Joy. Or another way of putting it, there must be a simple, clear and straight forward approach to reaching something we know, something we feel, yet something we cannot quantify.

I was sitting in Temple during the High Holidays in 2005, when our spiritual leader, Marc Belgrad began his sermon ( he is the best) on "Where Is God?" Great topic, Rabbi Marc is always at the top of his game so to speak when he speaks to his flock. As he begins to speak, the congregation is in hushed silence, hanging on every word, every syllable, and every sentence. he speaks for about 30 minutes, it is never enough, but as he gets into the gist of his message, one word stands out. Jigsaw puzzles. He makes a brief reference about the Creator and the pieces of the Cosmos and how the handy work of God is everywhere. And here I am thinking, what a great metaphor, it all comes together for me, it all begins to make sense.

Here is what I have finally figured out. Life, meaning your life, is like one of those huge jigsaw puzzles. You all know what I mean, you go into a hobby store, (yes they really have a store just for jigsaw puzzles), you see the picture on the front of the box, it is a nice picture, even a strikingly beautiful picture. Your life is what this picture is about, at least the idea of your life will be when the pieces of your puzzle are all put together. But you open the box and what do you see? Well did you expect all the pieces would be put together? Or did you expect to see hundreds, maybe thousands of little pieces that represent your life just sitting there in a pile just waiting for you to come along. (You were hoping they would show you the complete picture, didn't you)!

You know they go together, but they aren't together just yet. You have a pretty good idea of what it should look like when it is finished, when it is complete, but it is a long way from finished. Sometimes it is easier, sometimes you go to the store, see your puzzle, bring it home, take off the cover, lay out the pieces. At this point some of you can actually visualize how it all comes together, maybe your life has been just that, you see things and they make sense straight away, right from the get go. But the fact is, though people like you exist, and we love you when we meet you, for the vast majority, we have to struggle to put the pieces of our lives together one feeling, one emotion, one idea and one flicker of light at a time. And this is OK, it is more than OK, it is good. Because in the struggle to figure out where we fit in, we learn all the lessons our puzzle has been telling us. Not in so many words mind you, but as you fit another piece into the next, and then another, and another, you picture, your life starts to come into focus. Piece by piece it starts to make sense to you and for many of us, the light bulb starts to glow, the more pieces we fit together, the longer and brighter the light.

So for just today, believe that all that has happened, all that you have been through has a purpose, the sooner you put your puzzle together, the sooner you see the answers, or at the very least you begin to stop groping in the darkness and come into the light where all is illuminated.

Have a joyful evening!
Robb