Navigating the Darkness
'Making of' The Return of the Light, Afterthoughts, and Letting it All Play Out
How’s it going? You alright?
Interestingly, I found writing The Return of the Light to be a real challenge. More so than many of the others.
Unbeknownst to me, it had its own development timeline and release date, so I thought I’d share a bit of a ‘Making Of’ for it and some additional thoughts for the road. How that sound??
Refracting Light: Making of The Return of the Light
I think the message and the heart of Return were implanted when I first heard Jon Bellion’s ‘Kid Again’ last September.
The lyrics “Oh my love, what happened to your light?” ROCKED me.
It put lyrics and melody to the path I feel I’ve been actively and consciously on since 2019. The path where I was trying, desperately, to figure out what happened to my light, how I could get it back, and how I could continue a life I felt so out of place in. (Luckily I didn’t, though, and we ended up here.)
Jon’s asking, “Can’t you see they took away the vibe? Can’t you see they took away your pride?” pointed clearly at the conclusions I had come to in The Journey Home. That our systems and environments often conspire to get us to shrink who we are (and can be) and the fight to reignite that light is ours alone. The fight to become a kid again.
Jon’s refrain “I am a kid again” makes much more sense when you know that he is/was a successful songwriter (Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Tori Kelly, +) who felt trapped in an exploitative touring deal with Live Nation (YES. That price gouge-y Live Nation). The deal made it almost impossible to tour enough to pay them back and get out of his contract, which severely hampered his will to create. After years of negotiating and tons of prayer, I’m sure, he finally reached terms to get out of his deal and gave the world Kid Again. Incredible news for a fan.
From the second time I heard it (it took me a once over to get it), it went into an almost daily rotation. As I let the song do its work and learned the story behind it, I was collecting ideas, watching the political show (USA), and still incubating ahead of Winter Reflections.
After feeling that itch (or call) to write again, I began organizing my thoughts for Return of Light and thought I was good to go. I felt it was an important one given the times, but as we approached Jan. 20 I felt myself dragging on writing it and having difficulty focusing. Moving ideas forward felt like moving apartments. One of my friends got a couple of frustrated, deflated phone calls.
There was nothing in my way and no other posts to focus on so I had no idea why I couldn’t get in motion. I had the sense for a second that I was going to try to post it ahead of “its time,” but ignored that I tried to push ahead. Unsuccessful.
I got all the way up to Jan. 17 with only a rough outline and bits strewn about the page when the Tiktok fiasco happened.
Since I was sitting in front of my computer, I was online ahead of its “deadline,” watched it “close down” early, and observed the resulting outcry. Once the play became clear (“We’re working with The Apprentice to get your Tok back”), I was highly irritated and felt the creative engine churn slowly to a start.
Watching that successful marketing campaign and the lead-up to the inauguration gave me a real-time introduction to this chapter of our shared history and realized any earlier version wouldn’t have included mentions of Tiktok or Trump and their accompanying implications.
The final version ultimately came out an hour or so before the inauguration and coincided with the first day of Aquarius season (an astrological sign that represents the human collective). Another lesson in divine timing and not pushing against clear internal resistance.
We will jointly see if I learned that lesson as we proceed. 🤗
I was really excited for the post and yet felt slightly disappointed at the process.
I had thought about it for so long and was frustrated because I wanted to spend time with the concept, the ideas, and the heart of the post, but it felt a bit like another last-minute post. However, if I had had my way, I may have fallen short of my aim to speak to times we’re facing as I wouldn’t have seen all I needed to see. And I'm both grateful and proud of the final result.
So as I will periodically ask with certain posts, I ask that you share The Return of the Light.
I think we are going to be spun through a lot of confusion and I want as many of us as possible to remember that if the light is to come through us then it will necessarily get dark outside of us.
And yet we must hold fast. You can copy the link below or share from the post.
Navigating Through the Darkness
In light of all this (no pun) I’m seeing and reading, I feel it’s necessary to adjust how I intend to move forward and how I go about these dark times.
What does this mean?
None of these are recommendations or suggestions, just my personal adjustments that are largely related to the work I’m doing.
I already pray pretty regularly and ask for guidance and wisdom, but I think it might be helpful to be even more prayerful. I’m working on a lot and I like to move pretty quickly, but I don’t want to be ahead or behind what is “perfect” timing for me.
I need to do more. Not compulsively, but I want to try new things and explore new ways to deliver my message and express myself. This also means unplugging and shrugging.
Unplugging from the noise (or closing those tabs) so I can dedicate more energy and attention to what I can create and shrugging at the foolishness (or Executive Orders) I cannot do anything about today.
I also need to be more bold. There are things I want to offer, say, and share that feel big, currently unprovable, and irreverent. I am always checking my intentions and I rarely speak without thinking, so I think it might be fruitful to be a little less strict and just say the thing.
In addition to boldness, I need to be more discerning. My aim is to speak more precisely and directly, but not imprudently. Especially given our country’s history (and present) with censorship and monitoring. So some things may even at some point seem coded and veiled. We’ll see as we go.
Finally, I need to be more courageous. If I am making myself of service, I can’t stand in the way of the work with my ego, fear, or my “need” to know. I will contemplate my steps and be patient with the resistance, but I need to move forward courageously.
Despite all this, I feel more aligned and more at play than EVER. I feel off-track sometimes and things get a little fritz-y, but I feel like I’m satisfying my aims of having fun and being effective.
And funny enough in moments like these when I step back and look at the moves I have unknowingly and unintentionally made, I find that I feel like a planet. I feel like I’m just rotating on my axis and orbiting the course set for me. So I find I’m not worried about much anymore nor am I watching anxiously for the rapture. 😣🫨 Praise God.
Light and the Measure of Your Darkness
We must keep in mind that there is an intimate, eternal, and inseparable relationship between darkness and light. The existence of one strongly suggests and almost guarantees the other. Just as we are always alternating between day and night, they are both necessary.
I may seem more peaceful, more weightless, and happier now, but that is due directly to engaging with my darkness, my sadness, and my hurt. This lightness has come from crying. My personal power has come from feeling my powerlessness from this moment and many others.
So the darkness we are all contending with now is beckoning us into the light of who we are and can be. And it’s virtually written!
We are awash in stories in movies, television, and books of things turning around only in the final hour. It’s one of the most common hero story structures. So of course things look bleak!
THIS is the group assignment. This is our human literature. Our shared cultural ethos. The question then becomes:
In what way do you “fight” back given all the dynamics and elements at play on the planet? What are the weapons of your warfare?
So we’ll work together to identify your dreams, goals, and vision and then address the resistance and the challenges along the way (your darkness), so you can play your role and position.
Letting it All Play Out
Make no mistake! We’ve got our days ahead of us, but do bear in mind the new administration (and their ideology) won by the slimmest margins we’ve seen in decades, and their focus on destruction and hate has already seen regular people back away.
This will only continue as the consequences and outcomes roll out.
This administration is one last hoorah for the Angry-Ats. Those people angry at progress, angry at diversity, angry at the broken system, angry at the (demo)’crats.
Humanity and consciousness are just not going where they are so intent on taking us. This thing is a Trojan South African horse with greed, pestilence, and destruction in it.
However, the faster they destroy and simultaneously show their depravity and ugliness (all of the powerful, not any single party) and the faster you play your position, the faster we can get to the next phase of what it means to be human. So we’ll do our work and let it all play out.
My friend and spiritual teacher Tasha Bee said this:
“An important skill to cultivate is patience in waiting to see how a naturally unfolds.”
So as we proceed we’re going to see the dark side of humanity, technology, power, sickness, and groups as we work through this collective curriculum together, but we’ll be patient and watch it all unfold.
When I consider all the things happening under the sun, I try to regularly remind myself to think of Earth as a school where we go to work out the darkness and ugliness of being human as we develop our souls. I’ve heard so many call it an experience of remembering.
It might get rough, but we’ll be aight! Or… we’ll go back home. Either way tho…
Kid ‘n Play
So I’ll remind you as many times as it takes for us to get it. Your job as "tHe WOrlD EnDs” is to kid and play.
The suggestion seems simple, obvious even, but don’t be tricked, kids do a lot. They build, they imagine, they negotiate the rules of the games they play, and they get up again and again without the hopelessness we adults tend to struggle with. Kids take play seriously.
Kids play. Adults? Have rules, responsibilities, and no time.
But I want you to be like an overactive high schooler. The one involved in yearbook, debate, photography, Spanish club, the drama department, magic club, and whatever else.
I want you to dabble and try whatever you would have enjoyed then and might enjoy now. Your adult know-how with your childlike curiosity and fascination can do wonders. And quickly.
Project manage your passions since you so good at your job!
Since I don’t preach what I won’t practice, here’s a picture of the Recorder I just received.
I’ve been wanting another instrument I could easily and quickly play jingles and melodies on so I asked an artist friend what instrument he could see me playing and he said a wind instrument. So I went and found the cheapest, quickest way to explore that burgeoning interest and will most certainly report back.
Start easy, start small, but most importantly: Start. PLAY.
Your light illuminates the path for others and play helps you find your folks. So get after it!
Parting Thoughts
Given all the stuff going on and the individual mandate I keep calling you to, I invite you to do some reflection and some journaling. PEN TO PAPER (since more brain regions are activated).
Write about your experience, what you’re feeling right now, or just a long brain dump to see what comes up and out of you.
If you do a dump, do it automatically, and don’t think too much. If you don’t know what to write, put the pen to paper and write “I don’t know what to write” over and over until insights come up and leak out onto the page. The answers aren’t “out there” anymore.
I personally feel like I’m receiving a lot of insight and guidance, so I invite you to slow down, ponder the possibilities, and wander with the what-ifs.
I feel like a lot is being made available right now. So STAY OPEN. STAY OPEN. STAY OPEN.
On my platforms I find myself sharing people and things I find helpful or supplemental to all the things I’m communicating. That doesn’t mean I agree with the whole of their philosophy or recommend them or their work, but simply that I thought a specific thing was helpful. So I’m finding that those platforms are an extension of all this. Just an FYI.
In closing, I leave you with this diagram I drew (that we’ll discuss soon) and these questions:
How are you cultivating your dreams? How are you nurturing your desires?
Stay shiny! That’s the message.
Melvyn 🌕
P.S. If I don’t add any additional posts, next time we’ll lean into some (thorough) practicality to pull you out of the news and the world and into your own life. And I’m thrilled.