's motd Sunday Oct 18, 2009

[Guest guest]

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Besides cooking, my father, Leonard, had one major hobby. And that was jigsaw puzzles. Oh, you should have seem him at work! He'd begin my spreading all of the pieces on our big dining room table and then sort them all out.

As he studied the completed picture on the box, he'd find the corners of the puzzle then begin working his way in from there. Little by little, he'd fit the other pieces together, building on those corner pieces until, finally, the puzzle was complete. He was done!Every Christmas, I'd search the stores along Canal Street in New Orleans looking for the biggest, most perfect jigsaw puzzle for my father. There was this one store called Ed's Hobby Shop where everyone who worked in the store knew me. They were always so helpful as I searched for that perfect jigsaw puzzle for Leonard.

My father loved all kinds of jigsaw puzzles. But his first love was puzzles that featured paintings of famous artists from the past like Michelangelo, Renoir and Monet. One time I bought him a puzzle that contained something like 5,000 pieces! And when you put them all together, you were rewarded with a beautiful picture of Monet's famous painting, Water Lilies.That puzzle was so beautiful that one day, years later while visiting an art museum, I was lucky enough to see the real Water Lilies, in person. Talk about breathtaking!Sometimes, while he was working on a puzzle, I'd hear my father grumbling in the dining room because he couldn't find the right piece. He'd get really frustrated and say something like, "I don't care about this puzzle anyway!" Then he'd turn to me and say, "Here, Dicky...you finish it!"Well believe me, I just had to laugh because the only jigsaw puzzle I ever completed had only 150 pieces. It was a picture of a fluffy cat with these big-old green eyes!

But usually, after sitting down with a cup of that strong Louisiana coffee, my father would refocus, unruffle his feathers, tackle that puzzle again and finish it! And once he was done, my dad would lay a cloth across the puzzle before inviting us all in to the dining room for the unveiling of his completed masterpiece.I've known a lot of people who were into jigsaw puzzles, just like my father. And from watching him, I know that completing a jigsaw puzzle, especially a big one, takes a whole lot of fortitude and patience. But once they were done, you had the satisfaction of knowing that you had created your own work of art.Thinking about my dad and his jigsaw puzzles made me think about our lives. See, our lives are kinda like jigsaw puzzles. We can always find our heads and our feet in the pieces of the puzzle. (You know, like my dad did by beginning with the puzzle's corners.) But it's that middle part of the puzzle that gives us the hardest time.

Which brings me to the subject of our weight. Some of the most difficult pieces of our life's puzzles are those that deal with weight-loss. But you know what? Losing weight should not be the toughest piece of the puzzle. I mean, after all, over the past 35 years, I've given you all of the pieces you need to complete this puzzle! And here they are again...You know you have to love yourself, unconditionally...no matter what. You have to watch your portions of food carefully and eat the healthiest of foods you can put in your body. And of course...you've gotta exercise.

And when you put all of these pieces together, you'll feel like you've won the grand prize. Like my dad, you can remove that cloth and reveal your completed puzzle...the brand new you!Love,

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