Month: January 2016

During my friend’s Christmas stay at my partner’s and my home this year, we experienced a major power outage for a few hours. While it really wasn’t that big of a deal and not much of an inconvenience for any of us, we did utilize that time in a way that I find is often forgotten about for far too many of us nowadays.

So how did we spend that time? We played a board game by candlelight.

Aside from the candlelight part, in this technological age, sitting around a table and doing something like this with friends and family seems to be happening less and less. Instead, people tend to be burying themselves more and more in their smart phones and IPads on most days. Because of this, conversations and deeper heart-felt connections are totally suffering. But when I was growing up this wasn’t the case.

There were no smart phones or IPads to stare at constantly and neither was the capability then to text or tweet or check out something on the web during any moment of the day. Meals were usually for talking about things going on in each of our lives and time was also regularly set aside to play games, go take walks, and spend more time engaging in real communication with each other.

I must admit that I too have gotten swept up in all the technological advancements these days, as there have been plenty of times I’ve found myself doing something on my Iphone instead of engaging in what was going on around me. That’s why I truly enjoyed the power going out for those few hours during my friend’s Christmas stay, because in those moments, we all decided to put our technology away and instead occupy the time doing something that was far more connecting.

In all honesty, I really do miss those simpler days, when people seemed to be much more interested in participating in life with each other instead of in something digital. Thankfully though, I’ve been making more of an effort lately to take time on a regular basis to connect with those around me, so it was only a bonus to use the power outage to do that a little more.

But sadly, I’m sure that during the same power outage for plenty of others, those smart phones were still being utilized with people remaining oblivious to life around them. Can you imagine what would happen for all of us if somehow every bit of electricity and cellular technology went down all at once? What would people do with their time? I’m sure most would shudder at the thought. Not me though, as I think our world would feel a lot less lonely.

Nevertheless, I was glad for the temporary power outage, as it brought me back to many of my happiest moments from my past when life was far less technologically advanced, when things were definitely more simple, and when people really wanted to get to know each other a lot better. Hopefully this trend will somehow reverse itself in the future, but in the meantime, I’m going to make sure I continue to set time aside to connect with those around me on a much deeper level, as I know it truly does help my life feel far less lonely.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

In just over a week, I’ll have maintained this blog for three straight years. After quick calculation, taking out all the “Thought For The Day” posts, I discovered I’ve written over 930 original articles for it since the day I began writing for it. I’m actually totally amazed I’ve been able to do this given how many things I never used to follow through with in many of the previous chapters of my life. With that being said, I’ve realized I do need to approach my blog in a slightly different way moving forward and that’s to find a gray area and not push myself so much to find something to write on.

The truth is I’ve quite often found myself sitting in front of my computer lately saying ‘What the heck do I write about today?’ After all, having composed over 930 original articles that were at least 500 words long and some plenty more than that, has pretty much exhausted much of what I had always planned on including in my blog from the beginning. But for what started out as an online journal just under three years ago has definitely morphed into something far greater than I could ever have imagined back then. I’ve seen my Higher Power benefit a number of people through my experiences I’ve chronicled in here of which I’m extremely grateful for. And I must thank my Higher Power for the benefits I’ve gained from it as well because it’s helped me to keep going, even through the most difficult of trials and tribulations I’ve had to face.

Yet even in this light, I know I must change my approach slightly to maintaining this blog because ultimately I’ve pressured myself on more days than not to sit down in front of my computer and write something. That often tends to stress me out, which is something I don’t want to keep doing to myself thus I’ve decided I’m only going to write when I feel moved to write from here on out. And when I don’t feel moved, I’m just going to put more “Thought For The Day” entries out there.

To be honest, I’m actually pretty proud of myself for reaching this point, because normally I’d force myself to keep up a certain pace until I burned out completely and grew sick and tired of writing in my blog altogether. Thankfully I’m not there yet, or even close to there for that matter. But, this is something I feel is really important to address because it’s all about me finding another gray area in life instead of being that black and white person I’ve always been. The gray areas in life have often been hard to find and usually even harder to maintain for me, especially when I’ve been an all-or-nothing type of person for so long. But in this case, I see this one clearly and am already making strides to live within it.

So as 2016 begins to fully unfold, just know that when you see a short string or long string of “Thought For The Day” entries that it’s only me taking care of me, living in that gray area, and learning how to operate on a new level in my life, one that is most certainly important for the health of my spiritual journey in life…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson