Dear E,

I wish I could tell you that life is like the puzzle you struggled with today, that there are a few missing parts and with a little trial and error, you can figure out where they fit. Life is a puzzle, but it’s more like the puzzle “Dalmatains,” with a mass of similarly patterened pieces that seem almost impossibly random.

You’ll struggle at times to make the slightest bit of progress, only to find yourself wondering if perhaps you didn’t force a piece here or there after all. “Maybe they don’t fit quite that snuggly,” you’ll say to yourself as you plod off to bed one night.

But rest assured, there is a bigger picture, it is accessible (if not difficult), and it is beautiful.

Your Dad