Month: October 2017

The Parable Of The Butterfly And Its Cocoon

I’m sure many have probably heard this inspirational short story before somewhere else, but I decided to include it anyway as a reminder for all those like myself who occasionally long for a quick and easy fix for the struggles we’re currently facing in life.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress, and looked like it was stuck. So, the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man didn’t think anything of it, and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body. Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, solely to prepare itself for flying once it got itself fully emerged.

I love this story because of the spiritual message behind it. In all my struggles with my health and healing these past few years, I have longed for someone or something to make the hole a little bigger in my own cocoon so that I could emerge much easier and hopefully put an end to all this suffering. Yet, somehow, I know that everything I continue to endure is all part of my own journey to become the butterfly I’ve always wanted to become and was meant to become in this life. And the last thing I’d ever want to happen, is for me to emerge from my cocoon too early solely because I sought that quick and easy solution that only left me with my own set of shriveled wings and an inability to ever fly.

So, even though this process of breaking through my own cocoon has been arduous more than not these past few years, I know that in the end, when I finally do emerge from it, every bit of pain, hardship, struggle, and tears will have been far worth it, as my colors are able to finally shine for the glory of God while I soar through the air with beauty and ease…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

An Overly Unsettling Film That Will Remain Anonymous…

Today’s article is about an overly unsettling film I saw in the theater recently whose title is going to remain anonymous simply because it was probably the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen before on the big screen. Its subject matter was highly allegorical on the religious level and surrounded the actions of a Satan-like character.

During the course of this movie, every possible theatrical element I’d label as severely dark was visualized on the white canvas in front of me. From rage-filled acts of violence and murder, to killing babies, to rape, to idol worship, to addiction, to greed, to cannibalism, there surely was no shortage of showing what a religious person might label as truly sinful behavior.

While I won’t go so far as saying the movie was a terrible one, because ultimately on a cinematic flair it was actually rather unique, beautifully shot, and well acted, I will say that it is one I will probably never forget because of how uncomfortable I felt long after I had left the theater.

I’ve had several spiritual teachers throughout my life warn me that I should throw more caution to what I watch on television or at the theater, but I never quite understood that at the time. In recent years though, it’s begun to make a lot more sense.

You see, the more I’ve moved away from my old addiction-based life and sought a higher path of living, the more my spirit has become overly sensitive to seeing various things in entertainment that used to not bother me at all. And the more I’ve drawn closer to my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God, the more I find myself not wanting to see any of those things now that feel so low vibrational, such as severe acts of violence. I feel so extremely unsettled these days when I do, and even find myself getting sick to my stomach, which is precisely how I felt during the majority of the time I watched this film. I was so severely unsettled with this movie that I longed for it to end way before it finally did and even thought at one point about getting up and leaving the theater because of it.

Yet, I know movies are just another form of artistic expression, except in this case, this one went way too far, at least for me. While I don’t consider myself religious, as I’ve said many times before, I do have a strong faith in God and believe there are dark forces out there who provoke many of those things I saw going on in this film, to actually occur in real life. All you have to do is tune in to the news to see that sad reality.

I don’t want to see that type of content in the movies I go to because movies are one of the few healthy escapes I have left in life, so to watch something so unsettling only defeats the purpose. There are countless murders and rapes and addictions and other terrible acts of violence going on every single day in our world that to see them for two straight hours on the screen in front of me, only makes my movie-going experience more of an unhealthy escape than a healthy one.

Ironically just a few days prior to seeing this tremendously disturbing film, I had gone and seen an animated movie titled “Leap!” that was the exact opposite in its content. It was uplifting, inspiring, and even moved me to tears with its “Never Give Up!” message, and is the very reason why I fell in love with watching movies long ago. But in this case, when I left the theater after viewing such polarizing content, I felt as if I had done something wrong by even watching it and almost felt as if I needed to take a shower to cleanse myself from it.

Nevertheless, I absolutely agree with those spiritual teachers now and see why it may be best in the future to avoid watching content that will not only work against the purpose of me having a healthy escape in the first place, but also move me away from feeling the very thing I am wanting to achieve in life and that’s experiencing God’s true joy and peace…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson