The Piece You Don't Know

In her book, The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver writes, "The most important part of the story is the piece you don't know."

For me, this year has been a series of jigsaw puzzles to be solved.  While I have put some of the bigger ones together, several smaller ones are still missing pieces.  I don't know whether or not I will be able to find them.  Like the last edge piece which sticks out from a puzzle, these absences can be more glaring than the pieces that have been fit together.  I have been thinking a lot about how many pieces I may not ever be able to locate.  At first, this idea was terrifying to me.  In August now, with the weight of the summer passing, I am beginning to see these missing pieces as moments of possibility.  It is what we do with what we do not know that matters.