My Story
Belief is a complicated thing. It can shape us in all sorts of ways and divide us in even more. If belief systems stay stagnant, they become rigid and eventually a barrier. If, however, we can evolve with our beliefs we can experience a living faith that is fluid and open to inclusion. The first instance of inclusion begins with the self. To me this is the core of unconditional love – to be accepted and loved, not in spite of who you are but JUST as you are. And in a weirdly paradoxical way, that gift of loving yourself is directly tied to dying to self – a kind of “get-over-yourself and get-on-with-loving-others” reality – an organic and authentic response to acceptance rather than a blind adherence to a set of rules or laws.
Folk Rock Opera
The second song of this album is about belief. It, too, takes place during the woman’s dark night of the soul, bringing with it an inevitable questioning of her ideals – of everything that she has, until now, held as true. At first, the woman experiences guilt and grief. She falsely believes that she has failed in her ambitions. In truth, however, the woman has succumbed to a system of belief that promised her impossible perfection. The supplication is for the woman to embrace her brokenness in order to accept that she has value as she is.
Got to Believe
by angela josephine
there’s dust in your pockets
change in your shoes
a hole in your soul
you’ve got nothing to lose
no one to have you and
no one to hold
just a prayer
and a bible
and what you’ve been told
thoughts in your stomach and
hunger in your head
it’s the only thing keeping you
alive when you’re dead
fall on your hands
dig with your knees
anything, anything
i’m begging you please
won’t you fall on your hands
dig with your knees
you’ve just got to believe
there are waves on the sky
clouds in the sea
the blind all have sight
are you looking at me
someone to have you and
someone to hold
he’s a man
with a promise
and a life that he sold
thorns on his conscience
your sin is on his head
it’s the only thing
keeping you alive
won’t you fall on your hands
dig with your knees
anything, anything
i’m begging you please
won’t you fall on your hands
dig with your knees
you’ve just got to believe
if you fall on your hands
if you dig with your knees
anything, anything
i’m begging you please
won’t you fall on your hands
dig with your knees
you just got
got to believe
Enter the experience…
Consider your list. Turn it over and hold the underbelly of the darkness. Consider the ideals you questioned during this time. Give yourself time. Now write down beliefs and ideals you were questioning on the back of the list of dark times. Now write the evolution of your beliefs on the back of the light. (Keep the list)