Missing pieces

Last week was hard.

I love being on the go and exploring new places. I enjoy traveling and spending time with friends and family, but sometimes I do indeed need to stop, rest, and be home. It is healthy and necessary, but not always comfortable.

I also love puzzles. I always have. I was even part of a winning team at a jigsaw puzzle working contest. I have had the basic concept in my head for a missing puzzle piece painting that represents Matt, Evangeline and Lincoln for a while. Apparently, leading up to Mother’s Day was the week I felt I needed to work it out on canvas.

The colors were easy.

The green is Matt, copper is Evangeline and baby blue is Lincoln. I’m represented in the deep blue background. It’s a cool painting with pretty colors reminding me of my picture perfect family and how we “had it all together.”

But life gets messy.

Fast forward to me sitting on the floor in my living room with a box cutter and scalpel hacking away at a canvas. I sliced away puzzle pieces. Just as the colors are very specific, the shape of each puzzle piece is intentional and each cut was cathartic.

Everyone has loss. Everyone’s heart has missing pieces from the brokenness of this world.

On the giant canvas of our life, each interaction, each shared moment, adds depth and color. And when they are gone, they take with them fragments of our hearts, leaving behind an empty space that feels irreparable.

This painting shows a few pieces of my heart that were cut away 3 years ago.

That puzzle, once complete and vibrant, now seems marred.

But wait, because there is more to this painting.

When you allow someone to color on the canvas of your life, they change you and are never truly gone, because in the emptiness, there's a profound revelation

… IF you choose to look from a different perspective.

Turn the canvas around, and there they are—the missing pieces, not lost but merely hidden from view.

This piece speaks to the universal truth of loss. It's a testament to the bond we share with those who have touched our lives. Even though they no longer walk beside us, their presence lingers in the intricate and vibrant swirls of our memories.

And in choosing to see from a different angle, we discover a work of art that speaks to a love that endures and a view of pieces put back together.