I love a jigsaw puzzle. The satisfaction of finding the edges, forming the main elements, and then finding a home for all of the remaining pieces. Sure, there are moments of frustration, but generally I’m up for even the trickiest of puzzles.

Not this one.

My husband bought it for me as a birthday present from a local charity shop. It looked intimidating, and clearly had to the previous owner - it was still tightly encased in its wrapper!

I put it on the shelf for later, and later turned into over a year…

Every once in a while, I’d look at it, consider it, and then choose another one (I have a stack).

Each time it felt too tricky - too hard for now. I didn’t want to invest the time and energy if I wasn’t sure whether I could do it, or even enjoy it. I also didn’t want the risk of starting it in case I couldn’t finish it.

And of course, the longer it stayed there the harder it became to start!

One day I had run out of other options and decided to just take it off the shelf and move it into the table. It stayed there for a week or so.

Next, I took the wrapper off, and still it sat there.

Finally, one day I opened it and started the edges.

It still wasn’t easy. It took longer than any other puzzle I’ve done. I had to take it super slowly, but I did it. Afterwards I wondered why on earth I had put it off for so long when all I had to do was take it one step at a time?

Is there something in your life that’s been on a shelf for a while?

An idea that keeps resurfacing, but gets filed away on the ‘too difficult’ or ‘not now’ pile.

What’s your unopened puzzle?

And what would it look like to take it off the shelf and look at it?

Wishing you all a great week,