July 26

I finished up my fourth puzzle of the month yesterday and was about to start on number five this afternoon when I had a radical idea: why not invite Adam to help? (I'm very much a me-do-it'er when it comes to puzzles. I have no idea why. Just am.) So he joined me in the dining room, dumped all 1,000 pieces of Baltimore on the table, and started sorting. And I cringed.

Why? Because that's. Not. How. I. Do. Puzzles. I de-bag the pieces and then carefully pour them into the bottom half of the box. Then I sort though said pieces, find edges, and assemble those first. Adam, however, likes to lay them all out and turn them all face-up. He finds some edge pieces, but not all of them. And he finds notable objects --in this case, words-- to put together first.

So yeah, I sat in silent annoyance as I watched him piece together one word and then another, but at some point, I realized a truth: we're still working together. We have different strategies and different ways of going about the task, but in the end, the picture will be the same regardless of whether we do it my way or his way or a combination of both. And on top of that, the world would be a dull place if we all did everything in exactly the same way. So today, I'm thankful for our differences and for how we can pull together in spite of them --or even, in some cases-- because of them.