February 2024 Blog Topic: Share an Awareness as the Result of a Perceived Setback.
By Cheryl Clark with Clark Strategies
Hindsight is 20/20 they say. I am grateful Cindy Rose worded this prompt as she did!
“Perceived” setback! Key word being perceived! It’s not factual, it often is not even a ‘setback’ and yet in the moment boy oh boy do we think the world is ending and life as we know it is over! Yes, maybe a little dramatic on the word choices here but that sure has been many people’s thought process a time or two!
I want to share I’m slow to get to the ‘life is over’ aspect of any event. I have this ability or uncanny ability (scary at times, I might add) to disconnect and just flow in the event and/or circumstances. I think of this as an asset really – if you were bleeding to death in front of me, I’d be able to control myself and the situation, and then once you were okay ONLY THEN would I go holy crap I could have died with you!!! However, I don’t view this as a healthy asset at times.
My largest ‘setback’ or life-changing moment was for sure my detainment in Arizona for 295 days. I was safe, fed, clothed, and cared for. I met some amazing people that I am so grateful for. I learned so much, witnessed so much, and experienced so much that YOU may never experience or learn without having ‘been there’.
The ‘setback’ of all this experience was not the detainment itself. I can say that 5.5 years later. The ‘setback’ was not even having to relocate back to Canada – Though I will say that was ABSOLUTELY a huge struggle and to this day it still is! Why? Because I lost my sense of ‘home’. (Tears well up even typing that for this blog.) That is one of the internal awareness moments from this whole experience.
Sure, there were MANY other awareness moments that being detained as an illegal immigrant and coming back to a country I had not been part of for over 16 years brought to me. There were, and still are, also MANY opportunities from this ‘setback’. The knowledge, the speaking, the reinventing, the evolving, the making new connections, the restart and so much more.
Internally though the opportunity to define ‘home’. To analyze what ‘home’ is and to push aside what society has maybe programmed me/us to think of as ‘home’ has been such a deep ride for me. I’m still on that ride.
Life has taken 90% of my material possessions not once (my first move to Arizona), not twice (detainment), but three times. Are possessions what make a home? Being surrounded by the ‘known’ does provide a sense of security and comfort, and let’s face it, looking around at material items also brings with it a sense of accomplishment – all you own and have bought.
Are any of us secure in our living quarters? Natural disasters, financial issues and more could pull from us these quarters at any time.
So, what is home?
My perceived setback has given me the opportunity to dig in and really search for a home. This search continues – it’s an opportunity within me. I am not necessarily happy with this moment all the time, but I am well aware of the fact it is providing me with learning that I only have as a result of my so-called ‘setback’. They have all… Led Me To This.
