Life is a Sudoku

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I enjoy Sudoku puzzles. It is a game of numbers, solved by logic. They come in various degrees of difficulty. I like the way that when they are solved, I know without a doubt that the solutions are right.

I see each puzzle as divided into 3 phases. Phase 1 is the starting point; the easy part where information is easily seen and numbers fall easily into place. Then Phase 2 starts and it gets difficult. Available references are not so clear towards filling in the blanks. Phase 3 is when the difficult parts are solved and it is a matter of time that the puzzle is completed.

The process of solving Phase 2 may involve backtracking, trial and error. Working with a pencil, I could always erase and make new inputs. Sometimes I would move on to the next puzzle before returning to unstuck an earlier one with new insights. Then, there are also those which I would finally give up unsolved.

My life’s upheavals are like Sudoku. Some might say that I get more than my fair share of Sudokus. But I don’t think so. Fairness doesn’t mean equality. Allah tests us only as much as He knows we can take. Some of us can take on more than others, depending on where we stand at any one time. I believe that Allah gives me only my fair share.

I like to think that Phase 1 of my current Sudoku is over. I have run out of references to easily put the pieces together for the purpose of understanding what has happened. Right now I am struggling with the unfamiliar territory of Phase 2. It is time for trials and errors. I thought I treaded very carefully, but still, I have needed to backtrack on some steps already.

Unlike working with a pencil on a Sudoku grid, real life is working in ink. Mistakes are not erasable. I will have to live with the consequences. But as long as I make more right steps compared to wrong ones, and as long as my logics prevail, I know I will be ok in the end. When Edison finally invented the light bulb, he had learned thousands of ways how not to make one. Perhaps I would learn a thing or two about relationship which could help me in the future.

I look forward to reaching Phase 3. As in the past, I will know it when I look back and see that things have actually fallen into place. Naturally, some boxes may remain empty for a while yet. Perhaps this puzzle is not meant to be solved the conventional way. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile I could always start another puzzle.
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