My Story
I had just gotten home from a long recording session in Detroit and the songs were becoming part of my DNA. I sat at the piano and this song was just there. If this album is about coming to terms with the duality of light and darkness, this song presented itself as the photon; the elemental force that runs through it all. I was recently in Northern Ireland at an event with the Irish poet and mediator Pádraig Ó Tuama and he spoke about his belief that prayer helps us come to terms with ourselves, with the underbelly of our desires and the truth we may have avoided or not realized. He also said that if prayer is working, it helps us to be truthful with our lives. Songwriting is a form of prayer for me in that way – it is teaching me my truth.
Folk Rock Opera
The first song in the album, ‘This Light’ sets the stage for all that is to come. Here we find a woman entrenched in her dark night of the soul. She is on a journey towards the light and expects to be set free from the darkness at some point on the horizon of her experience. She discovers, however, that the light is to be found not at the end of her journey, but in the very midst of it. Throughout the album, the woman comes to embrace an existence not of having, but of not having. She comes to learn to live in an in-between space, embracing the struggle as a way of finding joy. She discovers that there is light within the darkness and that this is where she ultimately discovers the soul.
This Light (PRELUDE)
by angela josephine
this light
this light
this light
find me
unbind me
remind me
are you even there?
do you even hear my prayer?
or is it all just air?
are you even there?
this light
this light
this light
you know my name
it isn’t all the same
this isn’t just some game
you know my name
this light
this light
Enter the experience…
Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On one side, make a list of darkness you have experienced or are experiencing. Consider the darkness. On the other side, list how light was there or the ways light may have been there that you might not have recognized. Let the two settle on the page together. What truths are emerging? (Keep this list)