God’s Mysterious Ways

Welcome to another entry of God’s Mysterious Ways, where I write about things that appear to be more than just coincidences, where God may very well indeed have a hand behind it, which for today is with something that happened more than four years ago now with my home security system.

When I decided to finally move from Boston to Toledo to live with my partner at his home, I opted to upgrade his alarm system, which was rather outdated, mostly for my own peace of mind. On the day the installer came, I was told the system upgrade would probably take a full day to complete. Little did they, nor I, know just how complex the upgrade would be. After a full day of being there and wires exposed everywhere, I was told they would have to return the next day to continue. When the next day arrived though, they came and left in a very short period of time, never to return again, leaving me wondering what the heck was going on. After repeated phone calls to the alarm company, I learned they had abandoned my job for personal reasons, which left me hanging with a system that was no longer operational. It took several weeks and countless hours for the security company to rectify the situation he had left behind. In the end, it took about a month to get my alarm system fully operational, all because of the mess the original technician had left behind. Needless to say, I was quite angry by that point and told the company to never send this installer out to my house ever again. Whenever I had a service call with my alarm over the years that followed, I made sure to ask who the installer was, always ensuring it wasn’t this original technician. Yes, I was harboring a resentment, yet never even saw it that way, and felt my actions were truly justified. In the end, I think God saw it was finally time for me to forgive, because what happened just recently, made sure to cross our paths again.

I had to set up a service call for a minor issue with my alarm system about a week ago now, and as always, I inquired way ahead of time who the installer was. After making sure it wasn’t that original technician, I moved on with my life as always. But, the day before that appointment, I received an odd phone call from them that told me I needed to call their operational team who coordinates the installers schedules. During that phone call, I learned that the window they were supposed to arrive had somehow switched from the time I originally established. Unfortunately, the time they had moved me to no longer worked with my schedule, which led to management having to switch me back to the 8am to 12pm time slot. I never thought to ask after all that, who the installer was going to be, because I had been so caught up with frustration over the time mishap. So, when the service installer showed up at my door the next morning, the first thing he said was, “Do you remember me?” And for the life of me, I didn’t. Yet, when they introduced themselves, I suddenly remembered, and it was then I froze. Part of me felt myself clench in frustration, while another part of me said that maybe it was time to finally let my resentment go.

As this installer stood before me, they apologized and told me that they had been going through a divorce during the week I was being installed and a huge fight had ensued over custody of their kid, which had forced them to take the rest of the week off to handle matters. After hearing that, I had much compassion and knew I needed to forgive, which honestly, I look back and wished I had done so long ago. After shaking hands and saying I forgave them, I could see the tension in their eyes lighten. They told me that every time they had done an install anywhere near my home in all the past years that had passed, they had always wanted to come back here and apologize, but the company had refused to allow them to make any contact with me, all because of the words I had originally expressed in anger.

I must admit I have some sadness that it took well over four years for me to let this go and offer my forgiveness to someone who deserved it long ago. Yet I’m incredibly grateful that the Universe saw fit to bring two people together, one who seriously needed to let a resentment go, and one who humbly sought nothing but forgiveness from them. How they got assigned to my service call in the first place is honestly beyond my understanding, given the red flag that had been placed on my account and given the number of installers the company uses. Yet, that’s precisely the reason why I feel this is just another great example of God’s mysterious ways…

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

Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another entry of Grateful Heart Monday, where I start my week off on a positive note with a piece of gratitude, which for today is for a recent day trip I took to Cedar Point with my partner and a few friends.

For those who don’t know, Cedar Point is an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, that’s considered to be one of the supreme places for riding roller coasters in the world, given there are 17 of them there. Many years ago, prior to when all my health issues began, I was an incredible roller coaster enthusiast who always tried to visit a slew of amusement parks every season. That all changed in the spring of 2010 though when my physical health began to decline. When I attempted in July of 2010 to spend a day at Six Flags Antonio with my best friend Cedric and struggled to enjoy any of the coasters I went on, I decided to temporarily shelve my amusement park days until I got better. Eight years later and many declined opportunities to go with others to various theme parks, I finally opted to join a friend and his family in their final visit to Cedar Point for the year, solely because their kids had asked if my partner and I would do the haunted houses with them that go on during the September and October time frame there.

Leading up to our late October Saturday visit, I must admit that I secretly had hoped something would happen to cancel the trip like severe weather or something else. I wasn’t too excited to go mostly because the levels of pain I’ve been enduring have made walking for any length of time not much fun.

Yet, I experienced my first piece of gratitude very quickly upon arrival at the park, when my friends let me know they had a handicap access placard so that I didn’t have to walk a big distance from the parking lot to the gate.

Shortly thereafter, upon entering the park, a second piece of gratitude came when guest services granted me a special access pass that allowed all of us to board the rides at the handicap entrances, where I wouldn’t have to wait in any of the 2+ hour long queues, as having to stand for long periods is extremely challenging for me.

Having that special access pass also proved to be a blessing given it allowed me to make it on a number of roller coasters I never experienced before, all before the high winds and rains came in later in the day that ended up shutting everything down.

And when they did, when everyone began to head indoors where it was dry and warm, my partner stood in line for a good while at the Starbucks (yes, the park actually has a Starbucks!), to get me my favorite drink, an extra hot venti decaf soy latte. Each sip of which definitely brought me a token of gratitude, especially, as the line grew longer and longer and was almost an hour at one point to order something there!

But, if there was one thing that made me the most grateful overall that day, it was the fact that I hadn’t cancelled my trip to Cedar Point and I never gave up while I was there, even when my pain was hurting incredibly. The truth is, I gave it my all the entire time, so much so, that I ended up accumulating over 5 miles of walking, which for me in my current state has been something I never thought possible.

So, for a guy like me, who has been spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically broken more than not these days, I feel I actually accomplished quite a triumph on my first trip to an amusement park in over 8 years. While it did take a physical toll on me in the end, especially because of the roughness of the rides, I can at least be thankful for the good that came out of it and the notion that I once again defied the odds and my ego. And I’m truly grateful for my friends Clark and Shannon, as well as their kids, for helping to make it all possible, something I never thought would be, given all that I continue to go through with my health…

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