I recently updated my profile picture on Facebook solely because the one I had been using was more than several years old. What I didn’t know was how this simple action was going to appear on the general newsfeed for everyone else to see. It didn’t take long for me to realize that though when I began receiving one “like” after another, and while I was grateful and flattered for each, all of it got me thinking about why my blog postings haven’t been getting nearly the same attention.
Why should this even matter, one might ask???
I’m pretty sure my spiritual teacher would say it doesn’t and I also believe she’d say that the only thing it’s really mattering to is my ego. In all reality, that’s probably true on both accounts. The fact is I never began this blog with the purpose of gaining the world’s attention or approval. I began it as a way of getting back into writing as well as furthering the healing processes going on within me.
Writing was once a daily part of my life, but I abandoned it back in 2007 when a long-term relationship ended and my sex and love addiction took off. I’ve learned through much of my recovery work that addictions usually rob a person of their creativity. In my case that was definitely true. I never had any energy leftover to write because I was always channeling most of it into one of my former addictions. When I finally found sobriety from all of them, I knew I needed to start putting that energy into something else that was far healthier. Sadly, many people often go from addiction to addiction because there is an abundance of energy that sits idle when they cease any one of them. For example, when I quit alcohol and drugs, I suddenly felt a huge surplus of creative energy within me. But instead of pouring it into something creative like my writing, I put it into constantly chasing after sexual relationships. The actuality is that most creative hobbies require people to be by themselves and that was the last thing I ever wanted to do back then. Thankfully that’s not the case for me today, as now I’m able to be by myself more than not and actually enjoy it. With that being said, I started this blog as a way of channeling that former addiction-based energy into something positive for myself, but it’s also had an ever better effect on me as well. It’s helping me heal.
Life has its many ups and downs and I’ve discovered that my writing can frequently help me work through any of those low points when they occur. How that happens always starts with me asking my Higher Power for guidance and then I just typing about what I’m feeling inside. Eventually through the words I write, I’m often led to the spiritual answers I’m seeking and in all truthfulness, this blog entry has been an example of that.
While my articles may never receive the amount of “likes” that a profile picture update can get, or even what those goofy you tube videos, various opinions, or generic statuses of people doing their day-to-day things can generate, the reality is that it genuinely doesn’t matter. I’m writing now because I want to write and not be stuck in addictions. And I’m writing now because I want to heal and not be stuck in any type of negativity.
So I’ve decided that if my Higher Power somehow guides any of these words to help another enough to where they end up giving me one of those “likes”, I’m just going to be grateful for it, because having even one “like” is far better than having none at all now isn’t it?
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson