The Power of the Missing

Have you ever labored over a 1,000-piece puzzle over a series of days only to find out at the very end that one piece is missing?!  You search the box, the table, the floor.  You retrace your steps.  You question everyone who has been near the puzzle, and you even suspect the practical joker in your family.  No one is allowed to sweep or vacuum the floor for days.

I know this is beginning to sound like a New Testament parable, but I am not going there!

Do you focus on the missing or the whole?
(Photo:  almost completed Kincade Puzzle - Larry Gardepie)

A mixture of emotions passes through you as you eventually reconcile the incompleteness of your creation.  You look at the puzzle... and focus only on the loss... the missing piece!

I wonder how often we spend on Incompleteness and Missing... What Isn't rather than What Is.  Do we even notice the magnificence of the rest of the puzzle?

This may sound like the Cup-Half-Empty or the Cup-Half-Full, but I am not going there either!

What happens when we don't see everything... or everyone?
(Photo:  Tulips outside Empress Hotel,
Victoria, B.C. - Larry Gardepie)

Sadly, it seems that we sometimes need to miss something in order to treasure it:  like a family member who is no longer present or has moved away; a relationship that ended; or a question that hasn't been asked.  Sometimes the missing or incompleteness helps us to refocus on what is important.

Does this sound like Reconciliation and Forgiveness?  Maybe... but I am not going there either... entirely!

Who would you like sitting next to you?
(Photo:  Tulips and Empty Bench, Victoria, B.C. - Larry Gardepie)

Life's Journey invites us to Notice:  Creation, relationships, accomplishments... and our limitations.  As humans, none of us are perfect!  We are incomplete.  Our understanding is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.

Therefore, it is important that we reconcile that we cannot do everything. And we must search for the missing and understand when we are half... not whole.  In other words, we need one another... and everyone must be included.

The real puzzle is:  How?  Maybe we start with:

• Who do you miss?
• Who would you like sitting next to you?
• What questions would you ask?
• What do you want to learn?

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)