The other day we were playing with a new set of puzzles Emma received from her aunty. Of course the theme is Frozen. And, of course, this is the only thing she wants to play with these days. Over and over and over again. But that isn’t the point. Rather what it has taught me…
Life is …
So we are on the living room floor, making yet another puzzle. She is happy, completely in her element of focused observation and undivided attention. Her eyes sparkle as she notices a small fraction of Elsa and keeps searching for another face or dress piece, the easiest to recognise according to her. The whole picture has like 36 pieces so I try to help her by grouping pieces for the different characters. First, of course, we have Elsa and Anna. Then separately we are putting the pieces together for Olaf, again separately for Kristoff and Sven, hoping to join them altogether in the end.
… like a puzzle
And while we are in this serene state of concentration and creation, somehow it comes to me: life is like puzzle. We keep putting the pieces together. Sometimes they fit straight away. Other times we have to keep trying to find the right match. Occasionally we make a smaller section work but we cannot connect the pieces to the big picture. Once in a while we have a big section missing. Frequently we keep searching for a missing piece for a long time, only to realise that it was in front of our eyes the entire time.
These days I am struggling a lot to find my way back to work or rather a work-life balance. I have been a full-time mum for almost 3 years and so much has changed since then that I do not even know from where to start. It is exciting, it is scary and it is absolutely overwhelming. But what my little girl helped me to realise is that it is OK not to have all the missing pieces figured out as yet. Because building something new, especially together with my loved ones, is so much more I could ever hoped for.
So just play it!
This also gave me the courage to start writing about our story. More specifically the multicultural aspect of it all. The good, the bad and the ugly. During the coming weeks I plan to share stories of our multilingual journey. A Maltese and (recently) Australian dad. A Hungarian and (recently) Australian mum. And an Australian (and not yet, but to be Maltese and Hungarian) daughter. Hope you join me and share your story along the way too. And we can play this multilingual, multicultural puzzle together.
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