On a day in 2010 the residents in the Red Rocks area of Monument CO., were startled by a loud crashing sound that shook the ground in their neighborhood. Everyone heard and felt it. People looked west to Mt. Herman and Raspberry Mountain, expecting to see the smoke of large airplane that went down; but saw nothing. Calls were made to 911 and the police drove around the area, but couldn’t find anything. The local residents forgot about it over time and it became a distant memory until early 2018. That’s when the Ore Bucket trail opened-up on the west side of Raspberry Mountain and while hiking this trail with a friend who lives in the Red Rocks area, we came across a boulder the size of a two-story house that came down the mountain side and took out a long swath of trees. [Yes, it’s visible from Google Satellite Maps, see attached picture]. Staring at the boulder, the swath it took out, and where it landed, my friend realized that this is what they felt and heard eight years ago. This was the missing piece of the puzzle that put the story all together of what happened back then. And it got me wondering about what pieces of the puzzles am I missing from the areas in my hiking, personal, and work life.
In hiking, how many trails do you pass by that you don’t know where they go? It’s easy to get comfortable do the same trails all the time because they are predictable. I know, I do it all the time. At the Manitou incline there is a trail that starts right next to the incline; I see it but have never taken it. Then at the top of the incline, there are close by remains of build structures that I’ve never taken the time to explore and just beyond the incline is Rocky Mountain that I’ve never gone to the top of. All pieces of the local hiking area that I’ve never taken the time to explore and put together to create a more complete picture of what is available in the area. I think it’s my “busyness” that prevents me from taking time to slow down and explore new trails.
In our personal life, we say we want to know people, but do we really take the time to get to know them and the stories of their life? Or as Sherlock Holmes says in the TV show Elementary, “My success is not because of whom I am, but because of whom I’ve come to know.” What are the life lessons of others around me, that can help fill in parts of the puzzle in my life? My father and two of my uncles were World War II era veterans who have passed away. Oh, what I would give now to be able to sit down with them and hear their stories of that time frame. It reminds me that everyone’s life is a puzzle, full of pieces from their past, present and future. And to get to know a person and see their life clearly, we need to invest time with them to see more of the pieces of their lives and have a better overall view of who they are.
Work is a puzzle as well. There are written rules, un-written rules, organizational habits, personalities, backgrounds, a culture, a history, mentors; all pieces of the puzzle that show the overall picture of an organization. Do I take time to know how the pieces all fit together? Do I look for connections?
Puzzles are hard work. They require: attention to detail, time, thought and wonder; as we look to see how pieces fit together. We need to rekindle that approach to the puzzles in our lives; paying attention to the details of people and events around us, so we start to see the bigger and more complete picture of how things are interconnected with each other in our lives. What things are you wondering about? What are the missing pieces that would allow you to see the whole story? What actions are you going to take to fill in more of the puzzles in your life? We treat most of our lives as random, non-connected events. Yet in reality things are more connected than we can ever image. It’s time to start looking at events and things taking place in the context of how they are connected -like pieces of a puzzle. And when we do, we will start to see stories and our world in a whole new way.
Al Andersen 