Category: Daily Reflection

“Pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress…” (Bill Wilson)

I’ve had a lot of pain in my life. A LOT! I endured it as a young kid growing up in a dysfunctional home. I endured it being bullied all throughout my grade school years. I endured it from being molested by an adult before I was even a teenager. I endured it when my father took his life. I endured it when my mother had her tragic drunken fall down the stairs. I endured it from the complete financial loss of a business I once owned. I endured it from each and every one of the addictions I succumbed to. I endured it from a number of breakups. And I even endured it from the many different health issues I’ve had to experience, especially in recent years. BUT, through all of these terrible times of pain I’ve gone through, something truly wonderful has happened to me as well. I was completely catapulted through great changes of spiritual growth where each has brought me so much closer to my Higher Power. I’m often asked if I could go back in time and avoid going through any of these somehow, would I? My answer today is no, because I wouldn’t have the relationship I have today with my Higher Power nor would I be the person I am today, and the fact is I really like both of these things these days. This is precisely why I thank my Higher Power for any pain I go through now, because in the long run, I know it’s only going to be another stepping stone to some great spiritual progress in my life.

I pray I may look at any pain that comes into my life as a gift and that I use it solely as motivation to grow closer to my Higher Power.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Saying yes to happiness means learning to say no to the things and people that stress you out.” (Thema Davis)

I’ve never really been that good at saying no. In fact, I’ve been downright awful at it quite a bit throughout my life. Most of that stems from the dysfunctional childhood I was raised in, where it was next to impossible to say no to an alcoholic mother prone to giving guilt trips and punishments. As I grew older, this unhealthy pattern continued, where I found myself doing things such as paying off other’s huge debts, loaning large sums of money to friends, buying a business for a loved one, co-signing a loan for a partner with poor credit, buying drugs or alcohol for those who were heavily addicted to either, and being coerced into having compulsive sex, all instead of saying what I really wanted to in each of these situations, which was no. Unfortunately, every time I didn’t muster enough strength to say no, the results were always disastrous. Thankfully, I’ve done a lot of work around this and am learning now how to say no now when my spirit tells me to do so. Just the other day in fact, I was able to turn down a short-term job offer with a nice sum of cash attached from someone very close to me that I knew wouldn’t be in my greatest, highest good. I must say, it felt pretty good to actually say no for once, instead of the alternative, which would have most likely only added stress and worry to my life. I’m so grateful that I’ve learned how to say no!

“I pray that I may learn how to say no to all the things and people that I know will stress me out and only add more unhealthiness to my life.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“The time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself.” (Douglas Coupland)

I know there are a lot of people in the world who are currently struggling with loneliness, each dealing with it in various ways. While some of them channel that emptiness into healthy behaviors, others unfortunately often try to fill it with rather unhealthy ones instead. Lately, it seems as if I keep coming across a number of individuals who are doing more of the latter, most of them through engaging in increased levels of promiscuity. I can relate, as that is the precise outlet I once invested all my loneliness into. But in doing so, I also became spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically sick in the long run. The fact is, none of the sexual relations I ever had in that way helped to cure my loneliness at all. On the contrary, it usually did just the opposite, by only making me crave more of the same unhealthy behavior. It wasn’t until I spent enough time alone, learning to truly love myself and my own company, did any of this change. And when I did, I started feeling a lot less lonely in the world, but even better, I stopped having the desire to fill any void I still experienced with any unhealthy behavior.

“I pray that I may have the courage to spend time alone and learn to love myself and my own company a lot more in life. And I pray that in the meantime, I stop trying to fill any emptiness I feel within through behaviors that aren’t of my highest, greatest good.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson