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...

Daily Reflection

“The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on”. (Julia Alvarez)

Being the holiday season, I’m reminded of a principle I saw in a movie many years ago, which was to “Pay It Forward”. It was about passing on any kindness and generosity received by someone to a completely different person. Unfortunately, what happens during this time of the year though is quite the opposite. Many end up choosing to buy something for another only because they know they’re going to be getting something back from them. I’ve found in life that’s generally not very fulfilling. Instead, I’ve discovered the best gifts I can offer are usually what I give to total strangers, versus back to those who just gave me something themselves. Often those paying it forward types of gifts are priceless to those who receive them and their effects go way beyond what I may ever see. So whether it’s buying a coffee or a meal, donating my time, giving a warm embrace, or even offering a heart-felt compliment to someone that didn’t just give me something prior, these are but a few of the many ways I’ve learned how to pay it forward in life. In doing so, my life has definitely become far more enriched than just giving something in return to each of those who also did something for me. And ultimately, it really does help to make my holiday season a lot brighter…

I pray I pass along and kindness and generosity that’s freely given to me this holiday season to others and that I remember to keep on paying it forward…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Spotlight”, A Phenomenal Film That Uncovers Priest Sexual Abuse

Having once been molested at a very young age by the coach of a swim and dive team I once was a part of, I came to understand just how much pain, horror, and agony comes afterwards from something as terrible as this. With that being said, I was reminded of much of what I went through all those years ago when I saw a movie named “Spotlight” the other day.

Spotlight is a 2015 film about The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” investigative team that uncovered the decades long pattern of sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in Massachusetts, as well as the Boston Archdiocese efforts to keep it concealed.

Watching the efforts that the Catholic Church went through to settle the sexual abuse cases outside of court for years was hard enough, knowing the ones that truly got hurt would never find peace through any of those small cash settlements the church gave them. But then seeing the Church also shuffled those abusive priests around to other churches in other dioceses for years and knowing those patterns only repeated themselves with more children was even harder to watch.

The work that the “Spotlight” team went through to bring all this to light was most certainly a daunting effort with so many hurdles faced along the way. This was depicted quite well in the movie itself by Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James, John Slattery, and Liev Schreiber.

The one thing that I related to the most throughout this entire movie was the testimonies that many of the abused gave. In fact, I was moved to tears more than once as I heard them talk about being paid attention to by a priest and initially how good it felt. This was how I eventually got molested as well, because no one ever paid much attention to me as a kid, that was until this middle-aged man saw how broken and confused I was in life and began offering me what I so needed and wanted. But tragically, I fell prey to him and suffered for more than a decade afterwards because of it, no different than all those they depicted in this movie who were molested by priests.

Ironically, I once met a priest almost a decade ago now who told me of some of the horrors he saw back before all this sexual abuse came to light. He said there used to be “boy parties” where innocent children were passed around between priests and bishops for sexual favors. It was really challenging for me to hear this, knowing what I went through. I can only imagine what it was like for all those children to have such innocent faith in God and then have that be stifled out by the actions of the closest thing they knew to God at the time, which was those priests or bishops.

The sad reality for any of those who get sexually abused at a very young ago by someone else is that many never come back from it. Some end up killing themselves, others choose prostitution for a living, while many succumb to a life of drug and alcohol abuse. Thankfully, God led me away from all of those dark paths to become strong enough, not only to talk about what I went through to help others heal, but also to be able to sit through this movie that in many ways was like reliving my own tragic experience.

So in the end, I’m very grateful for the team of people who created the movie Spotlight because I believe it can and will be healing somehow for those who ever suffered from sexual abuse. I hope you may take the time to go see this film, as it truly is phenomenal and most certainly will garner favor during awards season…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Unreturned Phone Calls, Spiritual Vibrations, And Acceptance

Have you ever called someone multiple times, left multiple messages, and never even got a single call back from them? I most certainly have, especially lately it seems. While I have struggled quite a bit with trying to understand and figure out why each time it’s happened, my spiritual teacher has said this is totally due to my spiritual vibration. But before I go into what she means by this, let me first take a few steps back and explain something.

Prior to 2012, before I even began turning my entire will and life over to my Higher Power, I had plenty of friends. And rarely were any of my phone calls not returned from them or anyone for that matter. I was also regularly being invited more than not to parties, social get-togethers, random game nights, and so much more.

So what’s different between the person I am now and the person I was back then? Well, the truth of the matter is that back then I used to gossip, judge, constantly say sexual innuendos, was promiscuous, make jokes at other people’s expenses, and be extremely manipulative in most of my day-to-day behaviors. And for some reason, the majority of the people I hung out with during those periods of my life seemed to like much of that about me.

Yet when I finally started on a much healthier spiritual path and began removing all of these toxic behaviors, one by one I started seeing most of those people drop out of my life. I started getting those unreturned phone calls. I started having plenty of evenings with nothing to do because my phone wasn’t ringing. It was also then I began hearing of people talking about me behind my back saying I was fake, that I thought I was better than everyone else, and that I placed myself on a pedestal. And sadly, I was none of those things. I was just trying to be a better and much healthier spiritual person, which I still am these days as well.

But for whatever the reason, the majority of the people I meet nowadays don’t seem to like this. They don’t seem to like my personality and they usually find me threatening on some level, even though I do my absolute best to accept each and every one of them just as they are.

Thus this brings me back to what my spiritual teacher has been saying about why my phone calls are not being returned. She says that the greater one’s spiritual vibration is (i.e., the more one is not regularly engaging in low vibrational behaviors such as gossip or judging for example), the less those people who are still regularly doing those behaviors are going to want to be around them.

So maybe this really is the reason why I’ve seen plenty of my phone calls not get returned lately?

Regardless of whether this is actually true or not, I’m a good guy with a good heart and I really do try my best to love everyone unconditionally. But I don’t like to make fun of people anymore, especially when it comes at someone else’s expense and I definitely detest gossip and harsh judgments about others. And most importantly, I also am doing everything I can to remain free of all addictions in life.

So if my phone calls are going unanswered because of this, because of this change in my spiritual vibration, so be it. The fact is I actually like who I am today far better than who I used to be. And if the sacrifice for being this way is having many unreturned phone calls these days, then I will accept that and continue to remain grateful to my Higher Power for each of those who do choose to call me back…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson