Puzzles

Over my Christmas break I wanted an activity that could be both mindful as well as satisfy my need to accomplish something. So, I found myself at the dining room table to conquer a 1000-piece puzzle. I chose one with many blurred colours of lights and some distinct lines of a freeway from the bird’s eye view. I wanted a puzzle that was a challenge; not too easy, but not too hard either.  

It has been about 4 years since I last did a puzzle, which also means previously I didn’t have children. The little helping hands of a 2yr old and almost 4yr old put the concept of a ‘not too hard’ puzzle into the ‘almost impossible’ category. From driving their toy cars through the neatly colour sorted pieces mixing them again, to putting pieces ‘in place’ and exclaiming “you’re welcome, Mum!” when it was nowhere near the right position. I knew I this activity was going to be harder than first anticipated. 

The border had been complete, first stage and easiest stage was done. I filled in some distinct clusters of colours and was now nearing towards the mid-way point. I was in struggle town, ready to walk away from it. Needing to leave it for a few days before even thinking about looking at it again when my husband reminded me, he wanted the dining table back sooner rather than later. I had to keep pushing through. I’m now at the two-thirds complete stage, the home stretch where you can make out the picture as a whole and have a real sense of which general area most pieces you pick up will go to after having studied it for so many days. I started thinking about finishing it and having to pack it up. A friend asked if I would frame it, to which my response was “no, I’m not that attached to it”. But would I leave it on the table to walk past and see my accomplishment for a week? Or would I pack it up after a day? An hour? Or even pack it up as soon as the last piece was placed? 

This sent me down a rabbit hole of what is my accomplishment worth. Wondering, did I do this just to show off my completed work? Why would I even bother beginning something that would end up right back in its box as if it had never been touched. It had me thinking I should slow down, continue enjoying the process again, because that would inevitably delay the packing up dilemma.  

Some days I have similar dilemmas with my church work. Since the pandemic began, I have questioned the worth and importance of what I do. How can what I am doing each day really make an impact if we can’t physically be together? There are youth now in year 9 who have never been able to attend a youth camp due to repeated cancelations caused by lockdowns. This event is so important in the life of our youth for helping them to develop relationships, find acceptance, feel supported and encouraged to question and explore. These are such important, formative years, for understanding who they are, where they fit in the world and where God fits in their lives. As Community of Christ Youth Minister, I haven’t been able to meet them yet, let alone developed rapport to provide any support. Each time I have thought we were nearing the end of Covid-19 another strain has knocked us back causing us to cancel camps, events and prevent travelling to people’s homes.  

Sharing all of this with my husband – yes, all spurred by eventually having to return the puzzle to its box– he reminded me of the monks who spend weeks creating giant mandalas out of sand, using multiple tools to create textures and shapes. At the end of creating their masterpiece they pray over it and begin sweeping it all up. As a symbol that everything is temporary, to bring awareness and meditation to something that is larger than their own small world. The monks give each person there a small handful of the sand which represents sublime possibility, then the rest is swept up and released into the nearest body of water to be carried away by the nearest stream.  

Was it all for nothing? Most certainly not.  The puzzle was everything I set for my holiday activity –mindfulness and a challenge all in one. My church work established good foundations and levels of trust with the youth and young adults before the pandemic that I know that every txt, snapchat, time I was asked to be a reference on their resume and every prayer I have said for these youth that I may not have been able to meet was making a difference in their lives. A mandala being wiped clean also means there is space for a new creation. Its been a week since I packed up my puzzle (the day after completing it) and already in that space we have created playdough, played hungry hippos, had family join us for meals, and played board games with friends.  

As we have just wiped 2021 away, I hope that 2022 can bring you a renewed sense of invigoration and zest in whatever you set out to achieve and may you take the time to see what new possibilities can happen where the old took place.  

Alicia Turner

Youth and Young Adult Minister, Australia Wide

New Beginnings

A New Year has arrived!  I wonder what is in store for us as we enter this year of 2022?  I sense the communities where we live becoming alive as we experience freedom from lockdowns that have been persisting over nearly two years. This change is happening even though we are still experiencing new strains of the COVID virus.  I see particularly an improvement in the social and economic areas of our country occurring.

Here in NSW we have been experiencing the effects of coming out of lockdown from the COVID virus for several months.  As I go out in the community, eat at restaurants, do the shopping and attend church I have noticed everywhere a bright, more energetic and positive spirit.  People have become more friendly and willing to say hello and have a chat.  There is more traffic on the roads and sporting events are being held on playing fields.

At our Open Door congregation it has been uplifting to gather and sing, listen, worship and bask in the physical friendships we have missed for so long.  And on top of all these great achievements, we are able to travel widely and enjoy God’s beautiful creation.

As I take all of these things into my mind I feel as though I have arrived at a new beginning.  Do you get the same feeling no matter where you are as your community begins to free up from lockdown?  So what’s ahead of us?  I guess it’s mainly up to each of us how we will shape the future in our own personal lives, and how we might be able to influence, our communities and Christian mission.  In fact for all of us we are entering into a period of transformation. 

A number of years ago Rich Brown wrote an article in the Saint’s Herald entitled The Trouble with Transformation.  Rich pointed out that “transformation is not the same as any change word employing the prefix ‘re’: reorganize, restructure, rejuvenate, restore…The trouble with transformation is another matter, it’s about sensing which way the Spirit is blowing.”

There is a need for each of us to be sensitive to the Spirit providing enlightenment for us to envision the new settings and the new directions for us to take in order to become a transformed person and a transformed church.  The phrase, “Let the Spirit breathe” is being used as a guide for us as we face a new future.  May we be sensitive to the Spirit enlightening us and directing us into this New Beginning of transformation?

The phrase, “Let the Spirit breathe” is being used as a guide for us as we face a new future.  May we be sensitive to the Spirit enlightening us and directing us into this New Beginning of transformation?

This challenge of transformation comes to us in the words of President Veazey in D&C 165:1b: “As a spiritual venture, boldly follow the initiatives into the heart of God’s vision for the church and creation.  Then, in response to growing insight about God’s nature and will, continue to shape communities that live Christ’s love and mission.”

Bill Gillard

Evangelist Bill Gillard lives with his wife Betty at the foothills of the Blue Mountains, just outside of Sydney, NSW.