Month: November 2015

November Is National Gratitude Month

Did you know that November is National Gratitude Month? I didn’t, well at least not until I came into the 12 Step rooms of recovery. With that being said, I decided to honor this special month with at least one blog entry about it, especially given that I’ve struggled quite a bit with remaining grateful on many of the heavy pain-filled days I’ve gone through in recent months.

I truly believe it’s extremely important to have a grateful mind and body because it’s quite easy to get caught up in what I don’t have, versus what I do. And frankly, I have a lot to be grateful for.

First and foremost, I’m grateful for being clean and sober from all my former addictions, as without my sobriety, my life would certainly be in shambles. Beyond that, there are plenty of other things I have every reason to be grateful for, from the help my spiritual teacher continues to give me, to my partner who has stuck by my side through all the pain I’ve had to go through, for both of my sponsors in my recovery programs who have been there for me when I needed them the most, to all those out there in the world who keep on praying for my health to improve, to the fact that I still have my eyesight, my hearing, and the functionality of the majority of my body, for the abundance of food, water, clothing, and shelter that I’ve always had in life, to my sister who has constantly been there for me and never gave up believing in me, even when I did for a time, to my friend Cedric who has shared a spiritual bond with me for close to two decades, and lastly to my Higher Power who has made all this possible.

Thus I’m more than thankful for remembering that November is National Gratitude Month because without remaining grateful, I often tend to find myself drifting backward into places I no longer wish to ever go back to. This is precisely why I plan on keeping a grateful heart, as I know in doing so I will remain much healthier and much closer to my Higher Power than if I didn’t…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

A Little More On Blind Faith

I heard a guy in a recovery meeting the other day say how he didn’t believe in a Higher Power because his life has mostly been filled with depression and despair for the past few years. He truly felt that if there were a Higher Power, that They wouldn’t have let him felt this way for as long as he has. While I felt his pain because of how much of it I’ve been going through myself, I actually have a totally different perspective and it deals with something called blind faith.

The harsh reality I have is that I’ve gone through more pain and hardship than I ever could have imagined I’d go through on my journey to become a more spiritual being these past bunch of years. Often my brain has tried to convince me there is no God because of how long I’ve been enduring what I have. Yet through all of it, I’ve still been able to remain clean and sober from not just one addiction, but all addictions that I ever fell prey to. So what has kept me free from all those poisons?

It can’t be my self-will, because that always led me straight back into any one of my former addictions.

It’s not another human being, because time and time again, I’ve seen how relying upon someone else in my life inevitably failed me at some point or another and led me straight into one of my former addictions as well.

And frankly, it’s not any physical possession either because they have only ever led me to wanting more of them, which was essentially just another one of my addictions.

The only answer I have to what has kept me clean and sober from all my former addictions, even in the midst all the pain and hardship I’ve gone through, is that it’s something much greater than me. And while I’ve never had any irrefutable proof of It’s existence, nor ever heard It speak directly to me, nor seen any other being of Light beyond this plane of existence, I’ve somehow still managed to make it this far, free from so many former poisons.

And while I may have battled my own depression and despair through all of this, I have continued to seek my Higher Power, even though I’ve never found any solid proof It even exists. This is what blind faith is and that’s what I will continue to maintain because so far, it’s the only thing I feel has kept me clean and sober from so much poison I used to consume in such excess, every single day of my life.

The bottom line with blind faith is this. It often means taking spiritual steps forward without any signs that a Higher Power even exists. But in all actuality, I feel that sometimes there are signs all around us of our Higher Power’s existence, it’s just not the ones our ego desires. In my case, it’s the fact I’m still clean and sober from all my former addictions. And that alone is enough to maintain my blind faith that You exist God. Thank You for my sobriety.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

The “Broken” Direct TV Remote

I had a problem recently with one of my remote controls for my Direct TV system. There was a button on it that simply stopped functioning during the middle of watching one of my DVR programs. Ironically, I did what many of us probably do when situations like this arise, I over complicated it.

The button itself I’m speaking of is a “jog” button, which allows the user to shuffle through commercials pretty quickly. At first I did what anyone would do and that’s to keep pressing the button again and again, harder and harder, thinking that might fix it. It didn’t of course. Next I changed out the batteries, even though the rest of the remote was working just fine, and of course that didn’t fix the problem either. At this point, I started to get slightly frustrated so I called Direct TV technical support for help. Thirty minutes later after they had me program, unprogram, and reprogram it over and over to no success, a new remote was ordered and acceptance of the non functioning remote became necessary.

Two days would pass before I received the replacement remote and when I did, I promptly began going through all the steps to setup every device the universal remote normally controls. When all that was said and done, I clicked on one of my saved TV programs to ensure the button was working ok on this one.  Alas, it wasn’t.

It was then I was back on the phone with Direct TV technical support once again trying to trouble shoot why this one button was now not working on two completely separate remotes. While I continued to troubleshoot with them, I decided to try the other remote from the back bedroom to see if it still worked, thinking maybe the functionality of that button was removed somehow, but it worked perfectly. I finally began to accept the fact that maybe the actual satellite box went bad somehow and that I’d need to get another one of those sent out to my home as soon as possible. But suddenly a simple thought crossed my mind.

Andrew, why don’t you try unplugging the power to the satellite box and see if it fixes the issue?

And you know what, it did, for both remotes actually.

So in the end, I realized how easy it is sometimes to over think what a solution is to some of the problems that can often arise in life. Thankfully, this situation was a great reminder of that and hopefully I won’t forget it the next time I begin thinking one of my Direct TV Remotes is “broken”. J

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson