Welcome to yet another Grateful Heart Monday, where gratitude always starts my week off on a positive note, which for today is for the time I got to spend with my best friend from Massachusetts on his annual visit here just recently.
For those who have been following along, this friend I’m speaking of is the very one who just over seven months ago or so decided that even though he’s gay, he can no longer engage in a homosexual lifestyle because he feels it’s going against the will of God and ultimately a sin.
Leading up to his annual visit here, I must say I had a lot of worry. Would he and I still have a good time like we always have with each other’s company? Would he be uncomfortable around me now, especially because he’d be staying in a house with a gay couple? And would he start throwing religion around like so many other conservative Christians have with me over the years? Thankfully, by the end of his visit, none of those worries came to fruition and that was pretty apparent from the onset after picking him up at the airport, as we were already laughing and joking from the moment he got into my car.
Although there were some heavy discussions from time to time during his visit surrounding the new religious path he has been embarking upon, I feel the unconditional love we share for each other and the good times we had far outweighed any of that heaviness. From seeing X-Men Dark Phoenix and Men In Black International at the theater, to taking a walk at Maumee Bay State Park, to a night drive in my old sports car jamming to some dance music, to a full day trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan that was filled with mini golf, great food, sights, a ferry ride, and scrumptious desserts, to nursery shopping for some new annuals for my garden that he helped me to plant, to plenty of Starbucks and other coffee house visits, to watching time travel movies at home late at night, to an afternoon trip to my favorite diner that has the best burgers, friends and pies around in a town called Archibold, to a day trip to Uniontown where we got to play my favorite miniature golf course in the state of Ohio, to our final day together spent at my partner’s company’s annual picnic and a visit to a truly beautiful state park named Lake St. Clair in Michigan, I truly have some great memories that can be added to the many others we have shared for over 22 years now.
While I may fear what the future holds for he and I, especially in light of how different of spiritual belief systems are from each other at the present time, I’m left filled with plenty of gratitude for all the time we got together during his ten day stay, as God showed that even through those spiritual differences, the unconditional love we have for each other and the laugher we always seem to share when together would still prevail…and probably always will…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
