All About Me and My Blog With It’s Weird Name

Brace! Brace! Brace!

Year 2009. The one I named ‘The Dark Year’. A series of events that made it seem like one long never-ending bad year. Health issues, death in the family, job stress and major surgery were all part of that year.

It was the first week of March. We were living in Illinois at the time. We had just received concerning news from the doctor about my husband’s health. While we were still processing this information, I got the call everyone dreads early one morning from my sister. Dad had taken seriously ill rather suddenly.

The next twenty four hours involved frantic paperwork to travel to London where he was living at the time. The paperwork didn’t come through soon enough. Dad passed away the next day. Given the health news we had received just recently and the unexpected tragedy with dad, we quickly decided to pause my husband’s follow-up tests to travel to India for dad’s funeral. So we, my husband, our oldest daughter (2.5yrs at the time) and I traveled.

I was working at the time in a global organization that headquartered out of Peoria, Illinois. It was a time of change for the organization and they were looking to downsize. My job was somewhat at risk. But, I put things at work on hold to travel.

Chaos in India

As a foreign national living and working in the US back then, travel outside the country meant getting visa paperwork sorted outside the US. I visited the US consulate in Chennai to get this done. What should have been a routine visa stamping event turned into ‘hold until background check completion’ event. This meant I had to stay back in India indefinitely until the check was complete. Internet research on this topic came back with varying timelines… some said days others said months.

Anxious and nervous for my husband’s health related testing that we paused to get to India, heartbroken over the loss of a parent, discouraged by the holds preventing me from returning to my home and job. It was one of the lowest points in my life.

My husband and I debated various options (the two of us staying back in India and working remotely, my husband returning with our daughter while I stayed back etc). Finally we decided that my husband should return to the US to resume the various tests the doctors recommended and so he could return back to his work. In the meantime, I would stay back with my daughter in India until the visa issue was resolved. I decided to go stay with my husband’s aunt living in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

I notified my manager at work about this unexpected delay in my return to the US and a remote work arrangement was agreed upon. My husband flew back to the US, my sister and her family returned to London and my daughter and I moved to Coimbatore.

My husband’s aunt, Ranjini, welcomed us into her home. We settled in for the indefinite future. Although there was uncertainty surrounding the stay, we were accommodated graciously.

In Search Of Blessed Peace

During this period of turmoil, living far away from the life I had made for myself in the US and from my husband, I started listening to Christian Praise and Worship songs on YouTube to manage stress.

One particular morning, I chanced upon this song. When you watch it right now, you’ll find that it isn’t the high quality/high resolution videos we are used to watching. But, at that time, it was exactly what God used to comfort me. The energy and excitement of the singers and performers was contagious. I even wondered how the audience could stay put during that performance. I was hooked! I listened to it on repeat. The deeper meaning of the lyrics changed my outlook on my situation.

This song served as a source of encouragement when I was emotionally drained and lacking the will to push forward. The original version was sung by Mary Mary and can be found here: Shackles. But, this variation sung by John Tesh and his band really hit home with me. The hope in Jesus that surpasses all else was what I saw. It became my battle song for the remainder of that difficult year.

With a renewed sense of purpose and will to navigate the wait, I visited family, introduced my daughter to new foods and places, worked remotely to stay abreast of things, prayed often and regularly, made new friends and remained hopeful. A few months later the visa hold was cleared and I returned to the US. I am thankful for family that God placed around us at that time and also for the friends and acquaintances we made in that period of time. Every person and experience turned out to be a huge blessing.

Faith In Action.. The Redemption Story

The rest of the year, after returning to the US, things didn’t necessarily get easier or better. But, my perspective had changed for the better. We were blessed with an awesome group of friends and family in our immediate circle in the US who prayed and walked with us during the stressful seasons that followed. Alex went through major surgery and I went through three months away from my job. It turned out to be the perfect arrangement where I could stay home caring for my husband while he recuperated.

Subsequently, he recovered and we both returned to work. And through it all, God’s peace guided us along.

Since then, I try to remind myself of this year both in times of abundance and times of dearth equally. Remembering to submit it all to God. To live a shackle-free life in Him. And that was the inspiration for my blog.

The Original Name

Incidentally, blogging wasn’t a brand new idea for me in 2009. I had already started penning my thoughts down into a blog before the dark year began! The writing was fluid and reflected the happenings that ruled my life in that phase of life 🙂 You can check it out here: Shacklefree Blog

But, upon my return to the US that year and once things had settled down during the latter part of the dark year, I published a single blog post called What’s With That Name. It wasn’t a descriptive explanation about my blog name or my life situation or anything at all! Rather, it was a cryptic post with a single link to a YouTube video. That was the post in its entirety! I left it to my readers to decipher what it meant. Thinking back, I realize I just hadn’t been ready to share all the details of the dark year yet. However, I continued to post about daily life. All the beautiful and welcome chaos of life that my younger self dealt with.

Mary Mary – Shackles

The New Name!

I have held on to the lessons of that dark year every since and still find peace and comfort during tough times.

I continued with blogging for a bit but life took over and writing took a backseat. I went on a 10 year hiatus from blogging!

Now, about 10 years later, I’ve felt the urge to return to writing and documenting things that inspire, drive and challenge me. So, at the dawn of the new year of 2022, I resolved to give free reign to my creative writing side. To resurrecting some good old habits and sparking some new ones in all my readers.

Last but definitely not least, you are probably still questioning if I misspelled the name ‘shackles’ of my blog when I revived it this decade. But not really. The blog name is not a typo! The additional ‘c’ is a play on my husband’s family name ‘Schwartz‘. Since our story revolves so much around the two of us, it would be fitting.

Hope you, my lovely readers, will hop on for this certainly entertaining ride!

Finally, if your penchant for my story continues, checkout my bio here: About Me.