teachingwithsoul, yes, Magpiegirl is an amazing woman to have a connection of some sort with. Your passion and new focus sound amazing, too! Your story is a great example of all the good that can emerge out of what feels like a really difficult time. Sometimes it's an epiphany that pushes us forward, and other times it's much higher-level redemptive work going on, and our role is to just be open and willing. It sounds like a a bit of both has been happening for you. Blessings!

Mel, wow, I can relate to that! What you wrote perfectly describes the process I was going through in 2005. I'm so glad you've seen your life turn around in big ways, too.

Luckless Pedestrian, this is so powerful: “'darkness' doesn’t equate 'evil' 'bad' 'false' or any of the other scary things I was raised to think of it as. Darkness is simply the unmanifested, the void- that which we are all in this life to draw fruit out of." I love that way of thinking about darkness. I think part of the problem is that in religious circles, darkness is so often used as a metaphor for evil, but there are many kinds of darknesses, and many ways to approach it. You seem to have a great grasp on this concept, and I think you will have great success with your album. Please keep us posted!