Month: January 2014

The Recovery Preamble – “The Only Requirement…”

“The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop __________.”

This line is an excerpt taken from the Preamble of 12-Step based recovery meetings. If you’ve ever attended any of those types of meetings, then you’ve probably heard it before. But if you haven’t, it may just be the MOST important thing you need to know if you should ever find yourself searching for recovery from any type of addiction.

Unfortunately, there is a gross misconception in this world about all 12-Step based recovery groups such as AA, NA, CA, Al-Anon, etc.  Too many people believe that each all cults and that there’s specific protocols to gaining membership to them. Sadly, this is quite far from the truth. Unfortunately, that excerpt above has also be misleading for many newcomers. So let me set a few things straight if you happen to be someone who’s seeking recovery from an addiction or just inquiring into 12-Step based programs.

12-Step based recovery meetings don’t actually have any requirements for membership. In fact, there aren’t any specific “memberships” at all. To be a “member” of a group, it’s as simple as putting your name and number on a list so that others you meet in the group may contact you. But you should also know that a newcomer doesn’t even have to be a “member” of a group either. I went for the first 12 years of my recovery from alcohol and drugs to many different meetings where I never once put my name on any list.

In addition, while there are certain groups out there which cater to women, gays and lesbians, deaf, Spanish, etc., none of them are specific clubs with elusive membership. The only thing a newcomer ever really needs to pay attention to when coming around to any 12-Step based recovery meeting for the first time is to look for an “Open” meeting. That’s only because when a meeting is labeled as “Closed”, it’s for those who have accepted they have an addiction. For those coming around to a 12-Step based recovery meeting for the first time, many of them haven’t even come to the place yet of stating they’re an addict of any kind. Hence the reason for having those “Open” meetings.

The bottom line is this. 12-Step based recovery groups are not clubs. They are not cults. They don’t have requirements for membership. It is only hoped that if you find yourself seeking one of them out, it’s because you have some form of an addiction that you want to find recovery from.

So if you happen to be someone who’s suffering from an addiction of any kind but haven’t checked out any 12-Step based recovery meeting yet, all you really need to know is just one thing. There are NO requirements for you to go to any one of them, but it is our hope if you do, that you have the desire to stop your addiction once and for all. And if you don’t, then I pray that God will help get you there so that your addiction won’t tear your life apart any more than it may already have…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

A Prayer For Loneliness And Depression

Something that so many of us in this world have struggled with from time to time are the feelings of loneliness and depression. They are feelings that can affect someone even when they have notoriety in life. They are feelings that can affect someone even when they’re in an intimate loving relationship. They are feelings that can affect a person even when many friends surround them. And they are feelings that can affect a person especially when they have none of those things. Through much of my own life I have called upon God to help me during any time when I’ve had to endure those feelings. Because of this, I decided to share one of my prayers that can help if you are someone currently struggling with your own feelings of loneliness and depression.

“Dear God, I feel so lonely inside, even though I know that there are people in my life who truly care about me. I’m so tired of feeling depressed; yet I’m not even sure why I do. I know that I feel this way whether I’m surrounded by friends and loved ones or not. God, will you help me to face whatever it is within me that’s causing me to feel this way? And will you help me to work through whatever it is as it surfaces? All I really want is just to be truly happy. Please do all that’s necessary to remove from within me anything that’s standing in the way of that and causing me to feel the way I currently do. God, I’m grateful for all the help You end up sending me to achieve this. Amen.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

I’m thankful that my country has a day like today to remember one of my greatest spiritual heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr.

While I never was alive to experience any of King’s nonviolence movement, I was able to study his life extensively through minority relations’ liberal arts minor during my college days. Having lived to be just 39 years old when his life was tragically taken, Martin Luther King, Jr. made an incredible impact upon not only our country but also this world with such a short lifespan.

King believed in pacifism, which was no different than the views of many of my other spiritual heroes throughout time who include Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and Jesus to name a few. Pacifism is the belief that all disputes should be settled through peaceful means and that violence should never be involved. Hence the reason for the nonviolence protests that Martin Luther King. Jr. led in his adult life to establish equal rights for black men and women in our country.

Probably the most famous of those was the one that first gained him national recognition, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. It started on December 1st, 1965 when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Because of this incident, King led a full-fledged bus boycott for the next 385 days until the United States District Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that racial segregation would be illegal on Montgomery public buses. During the days of the protests that led up to the ruling, King’s house was bombed, he was arrested, and publicly humiliated and taunted, but not once did he ever lash out at anyone. Instead, King lived by his faith in God, which helped him to endure peacefully, the entire backlash that constantly came at him and his followers.

I was able to see from an even greater perspective, how great of a spiritual man King was when I watched the entire 14-hour “Eyes On The Prize” documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. During it, I saw real footage of the many sit-ins he led throughout the South at places where segregation still thrived. Some of the images in this documentary haunt me to this day of what so many racist white people did towards King and all his followers. It baffles me to understand how these racist white people justified their beatings of all those innocent black men and women. I was shocked every time I saw the firemen turn their hoses onto those peacefully protesting and knock them to the ground. Truthfully, I was horrified to see all this racist behavior that also included the spitting on, the throwing of objects at, and the other constant public humiliation tactics towards black men and women who were just trying to gain equal rights. But even with the amount of hateful acts King and his followers endured on their quest, they remained nonviolent.

He even successfully organized a peaceful march on Washington D.C. on August 28th, 1963 with somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people. During it, he gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech that was focused on gaining equal jobs and freedom as well as the end to all oppression and segregation for black people.

One of the biggest triumphs that King’s march on Washington and nonviolence movement achieved was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination in all places of public accommodation, including restaurants and lunch counters, motels and hotels, gas stations, theaters, and sports arenas. It also led to the eventual desegregation in public schools. But sadly, Martin Luther King, Jr. never got to fully see the success of all his nonviolent efforts. At 6:01pm on April 4th, 1968, his life was taken by an assassination, that to this day still has many conspiracy theorists questioning if the true person responsible for his death was ever caught.

All conspiracy theories aside, King’s legacy led many others to pick up where he left off and continue the quest for full equality of black men and women in the United States. Soon after his death, Congress did pass the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known now as the Fair Housing Act. It prohibited discrimination in housing and housing-related transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin.

I’m so grateful for what Martin Luther King, Jr. did to achieve equality in this country. On some level, I believe his efforts have even led to the peaceful movements taking place today for equal rights for gay men and women. Unfortunately, I have had to endure my own experiences of being on the receiving end of hate by those who don’t approve of homosexuality and same-sex relationships. Through it all though, I don’t lash out, nor do I get angry anymore. I’ve learned that below all their hate is simply fear, the fear of change and of the fear of the unknown. It was the same fears back when King was alive and it’s still the same fears now.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is a man I will forever respect and love. He stood tall because God was constantly trying to guide his way and he achieved something through nonviolent means that forever changed our country for the better. I’m thankful to Ronald Reagan for eventually signing a bill that created a federal holiday to honor this man. It continues to be observed every year on the third Monday of each January and is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

So with today being that day, my only hope in this entry is that I was able to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. with enough love and light to show how spiritually great the man was. I’m thankful for everything he did so peacefully that helped countless people in our country to gain equality. It’s my hope and prayer that his legacy will continue into eternity guiding our masses towards living peacefully to achieve equality for all.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson