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)