When the Darkness Calls Your Name
Here I reflect on those moments when people only seem to reach out during their hardest times. It used to leave me feeling a little used or forgotten, but I've come to see it differently. Being the one they call when everything falls apart isn't a burden, it's an honor. It means they trust me to be their calm in the chaos, their candle in the dark. This piece is a reminder to myself and maybe to you that being someone's light when they need it most is something to be proud of.
Josh Ether
5/3/20251 min read
I’ve been thinking lately about those quiet roles we play the ones that go unnoticed until the storm rolls in.
You know the type. The phone doesn’t ring for months. No texts. No updates. And then out of nowhere...“Hey, do you have a minute?”
And maybe at first, you feel that sting.
“Why now?”
“Why only when things fall apart?”
“Am I just a convenience?”
But what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong?
What if that moment isn’t about being used...
It’s about being trusted.
Some people are built like celebrations confetti souls who show up when life is bright.
Others are built like compasses always pointing north when others get lost.
And then there are people like you, like me
The candles.
The ones they remember only when the lights go out.
And that, my friend, isn’t something to resent. It’s something to revere.
We live in a world obsessed with presence.
Constant check-ins. Likes. Stories. Statuses.
So when someone disappears for a while and resurfaces in their moment of pain,
And you come to mind?
That means something.
It means you’re safe.
It means you’re steady.
It means you radiate warmth when the world goes cold.
You are not the background noise of their life.
You are the signal when the static takes over.
Don’t confuse absence with apathy.
People are often just surviving.
And when they finally reach for light,
They reach for the ones who’ve never burned them.
That’s you.
So if someone remembers you only when they need you,
Don’t carry bitterness in your heart.
Carry pride.
Because when the world goes dim,
you are the spark they believe in.
You are a candle.
And candles don’t complain that they aren’t needed at noon.
They wait.
Patient. Unshaken.
Ready to glow.