Category: Daily Reflection

“The reason many people in our society are miserable, sick, and highly stressed is because of an unhealthy attachment to things they have no control over.” (Steve Maraboli)

I was waiting for a recovery meeting to start the other day when someone suddenly made their cell phone’s alarm go off quite noticeably, all for the sole purpose of letting everyone there know it was past the time when it was supposed to begin. Another fellow attendee then abruptly yelled at this individual from across the room, telling them in an extremely angrily fashion to cut it out. The loud alarm was then promptly shut off, leaving both markedly tense and unhappy. I, on the other hand, simply smiled through the entire incident, maintaining a constant level of serenity. I wasn’t always like this though. Plenty of times throughout my life, I’ve been in the shoes of both of these people, doing everything I could to take control of things that ultimately were out of my control. All that ever did for me though was stress me out and cause my mind and body to grow unhealthier. This is precisely why I do my absolute best to let any of those things go now, even when they aren’t meeting my ego’s expectations of what I think they should or shouldn’t be. And thankfully, I can say I feel a lot more peaceful today because of it.

I pray that I may have the wisdom to know when it’s best for me to let go of control and I pray that when I do know that, I will practice acceptance instead.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

What do you do when someone hurts you? Do you try and hurt them back? Take for example a time you find yourself driving on the road and a person purposely cuts you off. Do you speed up and try to do the same thing back to them? Or maybe you flip them off with your middle finger as they do it? Or do you try to do something else altogether just to get even? Hopefully it’s none of things because going tit for tat only leads in one direction and that’s to greater spiritual imbalance. While this is just a simple example of what an eye for an eye looks like, there are countless of other ways this happens all too often nowadays. Case in point, I’ve been a recent recipient of harsh judgments about various aspects of my life from several different individuals. But rather than allow my ego to send my own harsh judgments back onto them, I’ve refrained from responding at all. Why? Because I know that any time I’ve ever tried to get back at someone, wanting them to feel how I feel, it’s only resulted in me becoming even angrier and more unsettled. I believe this is precisely why there is as much senseless violence in the world these days as there is because so many continue to seek revenge hoping it will mend their pain. It never works though. The only solution I’ve found that ever does is to keep sending any person that hurts me three things, love, forgiveness, and peace, and I do that until the pain is gone. Trust me, it works, but an eye for an eye never does.

I pray to be free of any anger I hold towards ________ and I send them love, forgiveness, and peace.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” (Thomas Edison)

I’ve been going through the most difficult storm over the past few years of my life. This storm I speak of is a quest I embarked upon to heal holistically and allow my body to naturally rid itself of all the things that have ever kept me out of the light and away from God. There have been plenty of days though, especially recently, where I’ve truly felt like giving up. Sometimes that’s manifested through old addictions tempting me to return to them. Sometimes it’s manifested through friends or acquaintances telling me how ludicrous this quest is and encouraging me to go get on some medications. And sometimes it’s even manifested in a desire to take my life just like my parents did. Thankfully, I haven’t done any of these things because I’ve always been told that most people who end up quitting a difficult journey they undertook, usually occurs right before they were about to reach their goal. So I don’t plan on giving up, not this close to the end, and God willing, the treasure I’ve sought so determinedly is actually almost in my grasp.

I pray I remain steadfast on my path even while the winds of my storm continue to push me down. I pray that I never give up because my success totally depends on it.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson