I've been thinking a lot about jigsaw puzzles recently
because one of them has a role in the book I'm writing now.
Jigsaw puzzles played a big part in my childhood summers. My
sister and I were very lucky. Thanks to my
father's job, for many years, we got to spend part of our vacations by
the sea. Our mornings were spent on the beach.
But what to do in the early
afternoon, when the sun was too hot for us to be out there? Or on rainy days?
This was in the days before the internet and YouTube (yup,
that long ago). There wasn't much on TV. And as much as we all liked to read,
we tended to run out of books. So Mom's answer to keeping two kids quietly
occupied was a big stock of jigsaw puzzles.
Each afternoon after lunch, we'd settle down around a table
with her and work on a puzzle. She deliberately got ones that had really
interesting pictures, to hold our interest, but that had zillions of pieces, so
that one puzzle could sometimes last us a whole week.
We assembled rustic spice racks. Put together elaborate collections
of china dolls. Teacup displays. Despite the triumph when we finally put in the
last piece of a completed image, the puzzles stuck around only long enough to
show Dad when he came home. Then we'd break them up quickly and pack up all the
pieces, anxious to start another one.
For some reason, the hour or two we spent daily huddled over
the puzzle, sifting through the pieces, trying to find a place to make the
piece in our hand fit, turned into a cherished memory that always fills me with
a sense of contentment and peace. If I
want a short mental vacation, I cast myself back there, my hand running through
jewel-toned shapes, choosing one and trying to find it a mate. Turning it around.
Trying this way and that. My sister or
my mother only occasionally breaking the silence with a question or comment,
for we mostly concentrated in silence on what we were doing.
What piece of mind there was in knowing that, even if we
didn't see how right away, eventually all those pieces would fit just right,
everything would fall into place, and the end result would be beautiful.
Would that we had the same assurance about life...
Of course, that is one reason that romance novels are so
satisfying — it's exactly what they promise!
How Jigsaw Puzzles Are Good For You
Turns out that there's more to doing puzzles than fun. They
challenge our spatial reasoning, logic and dexterity.
Puzzles work both sides of the brain simultaneously — our
logical side tries to fit the pieces together, while our creative side is
putting together the picture.
They build focus, concentration and persistence and help
improve short-term memory.
Puzzle Tidbits
·
Jigsaw puzzles were first
made popular by John Spilsbury in 1760, who marketed a map of Europe cut into
pieces.
·
The largest jigsaw puzzle
you can buy has 40,320 pieces. It shows scenes from Disney movies.
 |
The largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle.
Not sure where I'd find a table big enough for it! |
·
Jigsaw puzzle pieces — puzzling
and hard to fit in — have become a symbol of autism.
·
And then, there's
Wikipedia's well-known logo: a 3D jigsaw puzzle globe, with pieces still
missing, to allow for more knowledge.
So, do you like jigsaw puzzles, too?
Milou Koenings is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.
Her other Green Pines sweet romances, I Love You Three, Reclaiming Home, The Kampala Peppermint Twist and Sweet Blizzard are available on Amazon, Amazon.uk, iBooks, Nook, Kobo and all your favorite e-book retailers.
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Other authors who I think write great beach reads are Becky Wade, Jennifer Shirk, Jenny B. Jones, and Kristan Higgins. 
