“Falling Pieces”

We talk about everyday things, dropping pieces of ourselves littered with perception along the way. You talk, I gather. I talk, you gather. We pause, talk, drop, and gather some more. These pieces mean nothing on their own and if picked up by another, would be discarded. I see every piece as it falls, every precious piece as it fits with the pieces of the past telling a story. Your pieces, my story. You gather too. Even though you don’t see the pieces as they fall to meet the pieces of the past, you watch the story change with each gathering. My pieces, your story.

The stories don’t stay the same if no more pieces are dropped and gathered, for the lack of pieces changes the stories. Sometimes the absence of new pieces brings truth and clarity, and sometimes they send the story into a tumble making it hardly recognizable as the story it once was. Again, we talk, drop, and gather, and our stories change.

Why all the falling pieces? Why all the gathering? In our human nature we are drawn toward the puzzle hoping to put it together the way we think it fits the best, the way that makes us comfortable. We protect ourselves with the pieces we drop, sometimes we know it, and sometimes it is just who we are. Sometimes we miss a good story or fall into a bad one thinking it is true and good. Neither of our stories are true and good if the pieces we drop, are dropped for protection. Only when they are true and unprotected, so they can join the puzzle in their proper places will our stories be good, and true.

Diana Fricke 2013