It was just before the Thanksgiving weekend when my daughter decided on a Friday night that we should do a puzzle and turn the TV on. Relaxing is quite a luxury for us. Going to school, raising a steer for a 4-H project for her and work and running for me, a night home is rare. At first I didn’t want to do a puzzle. I just wanted to sit! Then I remembered how lucky I am to have a fifteen year old that wants to spend time with me, so I said ok.
Thus we started a round puzzle of a dolphin. A funny thing about puzzles, they become addictive. So day by day we worked on it. Sometimes we only found one piece, but slowly it came together. There was one spot we just couldn’t figure out. We both kept trying different pieces but no luck. Each time we found a piece elsewhere, we high fived each other. This was incredible. A week went by. Finally, we got close to the end. We really didn’t want it to end, yet we wanted to see the accomplishment. My daughter figured out the tough section, and then we moved on. We got through the whole thing and you guessed it, one piece missing! We stood up, looked around and there it was the last piece! We high fived each other, sat down and just admired our handiwork. Then my daughter says, “That was empowering”! How cool is that?
I guess sometimes empowerment comes from little things unexpected. I didn’t really want to do the puzzle, but once I got into it, that was all I wanted to do. The sense of accomplishment, the sense of completing a project really was empowering for both of us. I suggest over the Holiday or for the winter months to find a project you can work on as a family. It really is a lot of fun!
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