The best gift I ever received was one I didn’t want.
I unwrapped the gift from my sister and found a puzzle consisting of two pieces: A metal slot and a piece with oddly shaped knobs. You had to turn the knobs a certain way to make them all small enough to slide out of the metal piece.
So that was it. Turn the knobs and remove the piece. But it wasn’t that simple. I guess life never is. To solve it, you had to make two steps forward and then one back.
Why was that the best gift I’ve ever received?
Because it is a huge metaphor for my life so far. I haven’t just started at A and gotten to Z. It has been two steps forward and one back.
That little metal puzzle taught me that “setbacks” are just resets for opportunities.
I need to get around to thanking my sister for that gift. She has sneaky ways of proving she is the wisest person I know.