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)

Carving Out Beauty

Alaska is amazing!  Its grandeur, rugged beauty, and the dynamic nature of our world in transition.  All of these add to the wonder and awe of its sights, sounds and smells.  It challenges how we exist: learning to adapt; staying in relationship; accepting what is.

Marveling at Marjerie Glacier in Glacier National Park, we learned that the ice calving (breaking away into icebergs and ice flows) today originated as snowflakes on Mt. Fairweather thousands of feet in elevation and hundreds of years ago.  The river of ice has been moving and shaping the valleys below for millennia, reaching down to the inlets that greet and accept the ice and water it delivers.

A cycle of life that originated as snowflakes; merged into compressed ice; moved, shaped, and carved out lands that became fertile homes for birds, animals, and humans; then returned to the life-giving waters that feed our oceans.  And the cycle continues with the snowflakes of today!

Can there be movement in icy relationships?
(Photo: Marjerie Glacier, Glacier National Park
- Larry Gardepie)

Up until recently, I appreciated ice cubes for keeping my beverage cold or salving a burn, and I enjoyed snow for its beauty and winter activities.  I hadn't considered movement and creation as part of an icy, cold world.

I wonder what movement might happen when relationships go cold or we close off friends and family because of the cold shoulder, icy stares, or frigid behavior?

When must we stand above the normal flow of life?
(Photo Denali, Alaska - Larry Gardepie)

We are sometimes called beyond the normal or daily movement of our lives to risk breaking away or falling into a moment when ice meets water, and we melt and merge into the larger gifts of creating wonder and beauty.  Like snowflakes that have compressed over time into seemingly immovable ice, maybe our transgressions and hurts have become rigid over time and need to be released into something new and beyond the natures of snow and ice.  Maybe we are called to flow with grace and wonder!

How might we peak through what hides our beauty?
(Photo:  Gastineau Channel near Juneau, Alaska
- Larry Gardepie)

Some moments in life seem unclear and unapproachable.  But, even in the darkest moments, don’t we yearn for an ending and hope for a new beginning?  Don’t we seek to be seen and understood?  Don’t we want to peak beyond the shroud that hides Us from Them... to see and experience We?

Through forgiveness and reconciliation we can begin to see beyond the veils that separate.  Through dialogue and understanding we can realize there are many ways to live.  Through carving out the rock that roots us in one place we can learn to see beauty in creating a place for all of us to live.

Blessings and peace to you this week as life moves us to a moment when we accept one another’s beauty!  May we stand in awe at the Grandeur and Sacredness within each person!

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)