I am working on a puzzle. I bought this frustrating mind jumble sometime last year, thinking it would be fun (for an unknown reason given that I cannot recall ever choosing to complete a puzzle).

It sat on the shelf until one day early in COVID-life when my husband was out of town for work.

It is a daunting and yet addicting. 2000 pieces with few distinguishing features to work from. I have achieved little despite hours of trying.

However, I notice that the vast majority of any progress made is at the very beginning when I sit down. When my eyes are fresh, I am better able to make visual connections necessary to put pieces in their place.

As I sit here not wanting to continue working on something I don’t want to do, it occurs to me that sometimes walking away from a problem and returning is actually beneficial. Sometimes when we return to a problem after giving our minds a rest, what seemed hard suddenly appears easy.

And sometimes it is just procrastination.