Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another chapter of Grateful Heart Monday, where I begin each week with a piece of gratitude, which for today is for something that might sound a little odd, given it’s for my Toyota Camry Hybrid.

I own a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid and while I never named my vehicle, it truly has been something special to me and has been a blessing many times over. I currently have over 230,000 miles on it and am also its original owner, having driven it off the lot back in December of 2006 with a mere 10 miles on it.

Why I’m filled with gratitude for my car though is for a number of reasons, which I decided to numerically list the top ten:

  1. It helped me commute from Boston, MA to Chincoteague, VA (where the bed and breakfast I used to own was) countless times.
  2. It helped me commute from Boston, MA to Toledo, OH for two entire years while I was dating my partner long distance.
  3. It has kept me safe and helped me narrowly avoid a number of accidents over the years, and even protected me immensely when I actually did have a significant accident in 2012.
  4. It has been a great haven for me to vent and scream at the top of my lungs over my frustration with my health issues.
  5. It has been an extremely reliable vehicle with relatively low maintenance issues.
  6. It has been my “recovery shuttle”, given it’s been the only vehicle I’ve used to get me to all my recovery meetings ever since coming to Alcoholics Anonymous in 2007.
  7. Its license plates have been great talking points and motivations for a good number of people’s spiritual lives. (I’ve used “23RDPSM”, “BEURSLF”, and “DNTJDGE” over the years in case you’re wondering!)
  8. It has taken me on a number of long-distance vacations and helped me to go visit plenty of beautiful people, places, and things that I will cherish forever.
  9. It has maintained amazing gas mileage, even after all these years, as I tend to still average at least 35 miles to the gallon with every full tank.
  10. It’s been the home of much of my 11thStep life of prayer and meditation and mantra recitation.

So, as you can see, this vehicle has brought me a multitude of gratitude and remains very dear to my heart, given how integral it’s been to my life. Ultimately, I give all the credit to God though, as I feel it was God who was the One to lead me to actually purchasing it so long ago now, as I originally had my sights set on a much flashier automobile. Nevertheless, I truly have a lot to be grateful for when it comes to my 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid and I feel blessed for it to have been a part of my life for as long as it has…

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

Author: Andrew Arthur Dawson

A teacher of meditation, a motivational speaker, a reader of numerology, and a writer by trade, Andrew Arthur Dawson is a spiritual man devoted to serving his Higher Power and bringing a lot more light and love into this world. This blog, www.thetwelfthstep.com is just one of those ways...

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