Chuck’s Place: Growth During Life In A Blackout

Find Truth & Wisdom within…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Mirror, mirror, on the world,
what is the truth, of it all?
Darkness, darkness,
a blackout, over all.

The darkness reflects a world blackened and misled by delusion and error, absent the light of truth and wisdom.

The sage parents of our world, Truth and Wisdom, though always present, wait in silence. They know that their willful yet immature child must suffer the impact of its actions to truly grow.

Much pain and misery are meted out, and much pain and misery must equally be suffered. These are the natural consequences of cause and effect. Such is the state of our blackout world, as it cavalierly pursues its erroneous intentions.

Truth and Wisdom are always available for consultation, but their answers can never take sides. All of humanity are their children. Their purview is wholeness, all-inclusive, and for the greater good of all.

The willful child is not ready to share. It certainly does not want to hear the unbiased truth from its parents. And so it must play out its desires, until its lonely selfishness is ready and wanting and needing of greater inclusion. Timeouts from parents, however wise, never achieve this depth of growth.

The world is flush with deception, opinions and errors whose actions shake the roots of safety and stability and generate primal anxiety. The Earth itself mirrors these effects in the extremes of its weather patterns, threatening the survival of all.

The saving grace of this pervasive breakdown is its eventual clearing of the grave errors that black out our view and access to necessary changes. In its place is the coming of the Age of Aquarius, the rising of greater truth and wisdom to lead our worldly dream into greater wonderment, the next stage of our evolutionary path.

For humanity to reach this level of heartfelt desire, it must first fully play out its obsession with narcissism, with all its repercussions. Then it will be fully primed to experience love beyond its self, love for the greater good of all.

What is our role individually in this time of blackout? Well, as always: as without, so within.

We are both parent and child within ourselves. The inner child is the main character in this life. The inner parent occupies the place of the High Self, replete with divine truth and wisdom. The parent’s goal is that the child mature and find its way to happiness and fulfillment.

The parent freely offers guidance, particularly when genuinely consulted, however also knows that real growth is an inside job. Every child, at whatever stage of life, must live and learn from its own errors before it can become settled within itself, ready to serve the real truth.

In general, the child operates on the pleasure principle. Pleasure includes sensual pleasure but also refers to achieving happiness, contentment and fulfillment in all areas of life. The child is endowed with innocence, a purity driven by the pleasure of curiosity and discovery, unsullied by shame and fear.

Unfortunately, the craving for lost innocence is so great that it is a fundamental driver in child sexual abuse, where the abuser seeks to steal innocence from the child.

However, innocence is also lost in many other ways during childhood, including the impact of socialization upon the purely innocent child, who’s blank slate is immediately filled with the rules and regulations and beliefs of life in this world, as well as through the side effects of normal developmental lines, including encounters with inner narcissism and the vicissitudes of love and attachment.

The child state, whether in actual childhood or in adulthood, is on a mission to regain and achieve its innate state of happiness. The vast majority of dreams I have ever looked at, as a clinician, reference the child element in some form. The child is always depicting our growth potential or our growing challenges.

Often, the child, or ego in the personality, harbors false stories and beliefs, which defend against the truth and sensitivity of its lost innocence and the pursuit of its genuine desire for happiness. Operating thus, in a blackout state, it must live out its illusions until it is ready for the truth.

These are the inner errors we also see being committed upon the outer world stage, which black out the light of truth. The child, or ego, might turn to its inner wise parent for guidance, but, if the ego is still prejudiced—wanting to hate or desire what isn’t best for it—the parent must remain silent.

Growth can only come when the ego grows beyond attachment to the negative gratification derived from a self-destructive behavior. Ego must live out its illusions to truly grow to this new place. And when it has grown to experience pleasure beyond its unproductive fixation, it will find itself in greater alignment with Truth and Wisdom, the wise parents within.

The greatest guidance for growth now, in this time of blackout, is to ignite the light of honesty within the self. We can stop ourselves, like good parents, from doing what we shouldn’t do, but it will be defeated if we don’t arrive at real pleasure on a more truthful level.

Be honest with your participation in your illusions. Question if that’s really where you need to be at this moment. Perhaps it’s time to move on now. Perhaps it’s time for a real change. Open to change in alignment with truth and wisdom—when you are truly ready.

Shedding light, hopefully,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Tuesday March 31, 2026

-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Don’t get too charmed by the seemingly good side of a known negative entity. Don’t be fooled. Yes, people can change, but as you well know it does not happen overnight! Instead of focusing on what someone else is doing, focus instead on how you are doing. Have you centered and grounded yourself today? Have you said your inner mantras for prosperity and goodness in the world? Have you sent out a simple prayer for peace and unity? Have you aligned with kindness, goodness, and love for all? When something appears to be too good to be true, it usually is. We know that is an oft-repeated saying in your world, but it really is a good one! Pay particular attention today to what your heart is trying to tell you. It is there that the truth will be found.

All our love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Monday March 30, 2026

-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

As you begin each day find first your balance within the self. Find your equilibrium in your own quiet way. It will be different for everyone. You may need a few moments to yourself. You may need to be in the bustle of life, the cacophony of life, to know your true place. Or you may need to be in utter calmness and quiet to feel who you truly are. It doesn’t matter the technique you use to find your center. It doesn’t matter how someone else finds theirs. What matters is that you take the time to get there, that you give yourself permission each day to begin from a place of balance, groundedness, and heart-centered love. Make this centering of self a daily habit. It only takes a few seconds, a few breaths, a few centering mantras, or a small prayer for a good day ahead.

All our love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Sunday March 29, 2026

-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Don’t be afraid to pull back from the world, even when things in the world seem to need your attention. It’s not your job to serve the entire world, or to solve the problems of the entire world. Your job, in your current lifetime, is to find your True Self, and get that fully centered and onboard as your true operating system. When you operate from your True Self there is never any doubt as to what you should be doing with your life, who you should be with, how you should be of service, or what your purpose in life is. When you operate from your True Self everything you encounter makes sense, the ups and downs of life and the smooth sailings, the periods of loneliness and the periods of togetherness, the periods of chaos and the periods of calm. When you operate fully from your True Self you are truly and fully in the flow of your life, and all makes sense. So don’t be afraid to pull back and away from the chaos, to find the calm you know exists within. It is there that you will find your True Self.

All our love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbyte for Saturday March 28, 2026

-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Keep the dream alive. Keep building it in your imagination and it will manifest. You can do this with little dreams and big dreams alike. There is no end to what the human imagination can manifest. Keep your dreams positive, infused with love, embellished with harmony and peace, focused on that which will serve the many in the best way possible. For what you can imagine is already created. In some other reality it already exists, and when the time is right it will become true reality upon the planet Earth, where it was first imagined and dreamed. It’s just a matter of time, but your intent, along with the intent of others, can manifest it all the faster, and all the better.

All our love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR