It is as though every person is a puzzle piece, with a set of dips and rounds unique as a snowflake. Most people go through life trying to find that proper match, but they meet neither.
They find someone whose one indent exact snaps into their one protrusion (yes, sex often pays a major role here!), and it feels like a match for awhile; but they begin to notice as time passes that there is too much of themselves that is still bare, exposed to the world, vulnerable to fate.
That piece that fits doesn’t hold and they drift apart, still searching; or they may just stay together anyway, because that level of match feels so comfortable at first that by the time they realize two jagged edges do not a match make, the don’t have the strength to overcome the pieces that, while small, had fused together tightly.
People that find the proper match never worry again. They take that long side that is securely set for granted, in a healthy way, and populate their other edges with the family they like best, friends who come and go but are deeply felt in their time, and regular dips into oceans of stimulation- books, plays, music, movies, nature, creativity.
Though these lucky ones become dust, just like the mismatched, they leave a sprinkle of joy in the layer of dust on the Earth that is caught up in the wind and settles on the next puzzle piece destined for happiness.

Christina Arrustudo is retired from her position of executive director of First Five Solano. She and her husband, Guy, currently live in Auburn though they are frequently found visiting their friends in Benicia and with Guy jazzing it up at the Sardine Can in Vallejo.

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