February’s Questions For You To Ponder (Love Themed!)

Hello everyone! It’s time for my monthly questions for everyone to ponder. It’s been a strange winter so far with very little snow here in Toledo, OH. Just the other day in fact, it was 50 degrees, in February, can you believe it? Anyway, I’m doing a love themed set of questions this month because of Valentine’s Day so as always, I hope each of you will take the time to mull them over. And of course, my own answers are listed below.

  1. What do you like most about Valentine’s Day?
  2. What do you like least about Valentine’s Day?
  3. If you could receive ANY gift on Valentine’s Day, what would it be?
  4. What is your definition of true love?
  5. Who was your first true love in life?
  6. What is the biggest relationship heartache you’ve ever experienced so far in life?
  7. What’s the first sign you usually experience when you start falling for someone?
  8. What’s the biggest mistake you feel like you’ve ever made due to loving someone?
  9. Name one non-intimate action you would do for someone you are in love with that you probably wouldn’t do for someone you’re not?
  10. Who do you feel the words “I love you” should be meant for?

And as always, one more for good measure:

  1. What’s the first song that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘love’?

My answers:

  1. Seeing so many people try to spread love.
  2. Seeing so many people believe that love comes from something that costs money.
  3. A huge hug from God, Jesus, or one of his divine messengers.
  4. Loving someone just as they are, with no expectation’s that they need to change a single thing about themselves, and desiring to give your acts of love to them with no conditions.
  5. Rob Vanhellemont Jr.
  6. My breakup with Jerry Prewitt.
  7. Having trouble imagining spending my life without them by my side.
  8. Loaning $5000 or buying a bed and breakfast.
  9. Attempt to cook a meal for them.
  10. Everyone.
  11. Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Gotta To Do With It?”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Where Do I See Myself In The Future?

I received a homework assignment from my spiritual teacher to write about where I see myself in the future. At first I was just going to do a numbered list of all the things I would like to see happen for me as time moves forward, yet after some reflection I thought how this might make a good entry for my blog in my more usual format.

With that being said, I’m sure each of us has been asked at some point or another about where we see ourselves in one year, five years, or maybe even ten years from now. For the purposes of this entry though, I’m only going to speak of life in the future, as I’ve come to learn that whenever I put a time frame on anything, I always seem to receive a strong reminder that it’s not in my time, it’s in my Higher Power’s.

Nevertheless, probably first and foremost what I see for myself in the future is a far healthier life. One where I’m back to engaging in more physically-based activities. One where I’m taking hikes, going biking, bowling, playing tennis and basketball, and spending a day here and there at an amusement park riding those extreme coasters. I actually miss these things the most in my life and have been working so hard over the past few years to help my body get to the place where I can do each of them again and more.

The next thing I see for myself in the future is going back to school and studying Spanish, as well as sign language. I’ve had a dream to become fluent in both so that I may expand my ability to communicate to a much larger portion of the world who I may never get the chance to speak with if I don’t.

Following closely to learning both of those languages, I also see myself becoming a certified Reiki healer in the future. When doing a little research on Reiki, I came to learn there are far more types of it than I first thought. Some of those include Usui, Tibetan, Karuna, Gendai, Rainbow, Shamballa, Kundalini, and Imara to name a few. In all actuality, according to what I read online, there are over 1200 modalities of Reiki, but for starters I see myself at least becoming a Reiki Master in the two most widely used forms, which are Usui and Shamballa. Oh, and by the way, if you’ve never heard the term before, reiki is actually a form of energy healing that began to be used long ago on the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual levels of a human being. But over the years it’s uses have greatly expanded and it’s definitely something I see myself practicing in the future.

Another important part of where I envision myself in the future is being a published writer and motivational speaker. I see myself publishing at least one book that chronicles the spiritual journey I made from sickness to health. In it I will write about how I successfully healed from the dysfunctionality in my childhood home, to the bullying and molestation as a kid, to the tragic deaths I endured as a young adult with my parents, to all the addictions I fell prey to for over two decades, to all the health issues I had to go through to fully transform my life into more of a spiritual one. I also see myself publishing several books in the young adult fiction genre quite like the writing I’m already doing with the Andy and The Zodiac Crystal series here in my blog. And of course the motivational speaking comes in with the territory in that I see myself going around the country and even the world, speaking about my books, my life experiences, all in the hopes of trying to inspire others.

Lastly, there’s one other area I’ve thought about plenty of times over the years but never quite come to terms with whether it’s in my Higher Power’s plan for me or not. In all honesty, it’s not one I’d do if my ego was in charge, but whenever I’ve gone through long periods of allowing my heart and soul to guide my life, it always seems to arise. What is it? It’s where I see myself getting a theological degree and being a spiritual leader in a place of worship. Not too long ago I had a dream of me being a pastor at a church and it actually felt pretty good being in that role within the dream itself. It almost felt like I was born to do it. And recently when I attended a service at the local Unity church here in Toledo, I truly felt drawn to the Reverend/Spiritual Leader there and how she guided the service.

So there you have it, a small vision of what I see for myself in the future. Will all, some, or even any of this happen? Or will my life take on a completely different direction? I honestly can’t say I really know at this point in time because all of what I see for myself involves being in a much healthier mind and body, one that I don’t have at the present time. So for now, I plan to keep on having faith that I’m on the right path, the path to a much healthier life, and the path to where my Higher Power will reveal to me more of what my future will hold when the time is right…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson