This Little Light of Mine

I'm Gonna Let it Shine

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh 1889

Hello, Friend,

I hope you’re hanging in there. I’m doing my best over here. I’ve been thinking, deeply today, about what comes next for us, for me, for this publication.

What can I do to serve the world? How can I best use my talents, my intellect, my energy? I’ve looked into the abyss and seen a possible future that I hope beyond hope is not made fully manifest. We choose, though, how to move through the world, where to focus our attention and energy. We choose how to live and how to love and how to co-exist. I’ve decided to reboot and start over here moving forward. I want to fine tune the dial. I cannot sit in my sadness. Picking at a scab makes a scar.

I stopped writing when the pandemic started and I entered this weird cocoon of isolation that I mostly still inhabit due to my vulnerable lungs. I could not form written words. They would not come. They fought every tap of the keyboard.

I made videos. I painted. I gardened. I made soups and cakes and cookies, but I could not write. I amassed a pile of half finished, self indulgent, sad little unpublished essays in this Substack. They have been duly removed from my drafts.

“Your work is to discover who you are and then with all your heart give your light to the world.”

Jennifer Williamson

My words have returned. I think they’re pretty good words, for the most part. I know that words have power and it’s important to use them with care. I want to use them for the greater good. My words, my art, my videos, all of it can live here, free from the data mining, microtargeting, and relentless manipulative algorithms of social media.

I believe with all my heart that it will be our light, our broken hearted art, our unwavering hope, our relentless joy, our stalwart tenacity, our radical kindness, and our innate humanity that will lift us up and brighten the path forward.

Creativity is the opposite of destruction. It is our birthright. It is where our greatest power resides. Art will save the world, but only if we keep making it.

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.

I encourage you to do the same.

Let’s shine together, friend.

Love, Madge