I have always been fascinated by mosaics, those beautiful pictures created by pieces of colored stone and glass. The pieces that make up gorgeous motifs that are regular and irregular in shape, but fit together to form a seamless work of art.
Recently, it came to my attention that the term mosaic can also be applied to one’s life. One’s choices, life experiences, and relationships are like those little irregular pieces of glass and stone. Each piece is glued to our life base, forming our life’s pattern, held together with the grout of our shared experiences.
We deliberately place each piece, as we travel through life, gathering our memories and making our choices whether we realize it or not.
What might have been different if we had picked one piece of broken tile over another. Those mosaic pieces representing our decisions, possibly changing the trajectory of our life, and therefore influencing our future selves.
By discarding the tile representing my post college job in North Dakota. I made some of my greatest life-long friends. By choosing to stay in America rather than returning to Ireland, my family and I changed the layout of our mosaic. By going to Trinity, I added another layer to my life experience in Ireland, while reconnecting with family.
Every life choice is an added piece to my mosaic, my time at the New England Aquarium, helping out on my cousin’s farm, my days dressing up at Pioneer Village, and years later at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead.
The contrasting glass pieces are the friends I’ve made, the lifers from HS and H7G, my re-enacting friends, my school family. The strong women I have surrounded myself with.
Even as I am writing this, my mosaic is evolving, decisions I make, experiences I have, influence the tiles I place in my picture.
Ultimately, my mosaic will only be complete when I am at the end of my journey, but until then the picture I am creating will continue to change because of the pieces of tile I select. The pattern and color will continue to evolve as I make new decisions.
I look forward to seeing how my mosaic will change.
