There are times I struggle with what to write in this blog. As of this posting, I have done this for 112 days consecutively. On each of those days, I have woken up and had the thought cross my mind at least once what I should talk about in writing for that day. What began as an urging from one of my spiritual teachers, blogging daily has become something much greater for me than just writing about random thoughts or opinions.
Often I wonder if there is anyone perusing any of what I am writing. To date, I haven’t had a single comment from anyone on any of these entires. The spiritual teacher who first recommended I do this has told me to just keep writing and trusting that it’s helping both me and others. So on each and every day, I have one single goal for what I write in my blog. My only intention is to be an inspiration for someone in their own journey of finding healing, hope, and God.
Writing hasn’t always been a passion of mine though. For the longest time, I was unaware I was even able to write anything. I was often recommended by therapists that I was seeing to journal as they would indicate it would be healthy and healing for me. I never quite enjoyed doing that task because what I wrote was just an endless stream of thoughts passing through my brain, none of which were probably organized enough to have anyone be interested in reading them. The first time I ever picked up writing for a purpose beyond journaling was in 2005 when I had just completed a ten day silent retreat in the mountains of Virginia. A friend had recommended that I chronicle the experience in words from the beginning to the end. I took her up on that recommendation and upon completion, I shared with her the results as well as with a few others, one of which was a reporter who wrote articles for a local newspaper who I had met in passing. Interestingly enough, this reporter liked what I had written and asked me to summarize the experience in less than 1000 words. He wanted to share it with his editor for possible submission. A few weeks later, I saw my first article get printed in a column in this local newspaper and the rest was history.
I wrote regularly for about two years after that. I submitted articles monthly for several local newspapers under the tagline of Words To Live By. I was grateful to have gained the experience but even more grateful for the few people that had gotten in contact with me after being inspired by what I had written. Their inspiration had even inspired me to work on and complete my first fiction based novel which fits in the kids to young adult fantasy genre. Unfortunately, my addictions got the best of me beginning around 2007 and I drifted away from writing anything at all for the next six years. That was until January of this year, when I finally garnered enough courage to take that spiritual teacher’s advice and begin writing again.
I’m not sure where writing is going to take me this time around. I have hopes and dreams with it like anyone might in my shoes. But on most days, I just keep on writing with one purpose, to get back into the practice of what I once did with great passion and joy, which was my desire to spread hope and love on this planet. This planet needs a lot more of that and as my hands type these words, I feel somehow that at least I’m doing more of the work that I believe God sent me here to do and less on how I’ve spent most of my life where I was running from it. I’m grateful to God for this gift and for those who may find any hope and healing in what it is I continue to write.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson