Search for the foreshadowing in your life; you will be surprised with what was already written

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

I am going to admit.

This column has taken on its own life. Of course, I have wanted to control it, like I try to control everything else, but I have let go.

It is something that I am working on, letting go of control. The Panama experience taught me that just like that, your whole life could change. Sort of like life has changed for all of us during the pandemic.

This week, I want to bring you hope. I want you to know that what you are experiencing will end. It did for me eventually, but during this lockdown, it is important that you find yourself, and one of the best ways to do it, is to write it down.

One way that people are documenting their lives is on their Instagram, and Facebook Pages. I guarantee you that if you were to start putting all of your thoughts from your Instagram page on to one piece of paper, you would see parts of yourself that you did not think existed.

This lockdown experience has been different for me than it has been for many. It is during this experience that I realize Panama for what it was; foreshadowing.

Panama was so brilliantly done. It was a hint to me that something was coming up later in my story. The story was executed beautifully; it created suspense and dramatic tension. It set up emotional expectations, and plot outcomes. It was done to heighten my enjoyment of this journey I was on, enhance my journey’s meaning, and help me make connections with other experiences in my life.

My experience was not even about me, as much as I would like to take credit, it was about all of you. Each and every person who takes a moment to check out my story will begin to see similarities in experience. We are not so different after all; it is just that all of our beginnings are different. Who would have thought that the daughter of two, well respected Caribbean Ministers would have a daughter who has done as much as me? Who?

Go ahead! Just go back to last year January, and start looking at how your world changed drastically. Look at how you responded. Look at how you have adjusted. There have been events in your life that have foreshadowed where you are right now. I want you to think about a few things. I want you to think about anytime you thought to yourself, “I have a bad feeling about this?” How many times were you right?

How many times did you see things in your life that seemed strangely out of place? Symbolic appearances, which in the moment; seemed like nothing. Parts of your life that were dark, gloomy, stormy, and at times were clear skies. How about prophetic experiences? Were there parts of your life that something was said about you, and almost like magic, they seemed to happen, almost exactly as it was predicted?

What has each of these experiences taught you, and have the lessons served you during this pandemic?

Panama set me up so that it was possible for me to share one sentiment….

YOU WILL MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!

I have likened to using the metaphor of the train entering a tunnel. There are those of you right now who have just entered this tunnel. It is dark, and you can see nothing outside. There are flickers of light (memories of how things used to be), but the darkness soon consumes these flickers, and like that, you are plunged back into darkness.

The tunnel is long, but as you look to the front of the train, you see a pin drop of light, that every passing minute gets larger and larger. The looming darkness is still around you, but I want you to focus your attention on that dot. Watch it grow. That dot my friends, is the end of this.

In the meantime, find ways to define yourself, document what you can, and revisit your experiences. Search for the foreshadowing.