Category: Grateful Heart Monday

These entries will occur every Monday and will be about a single piece of gratitude I’m grateful for and why. It is my hope that in doing this, it will not only help me, but others as well, to start the week off with a grateful heart.

Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday entry, where gratitude remains the sole focus on my writing to start each of my week’s off, which for today is for Sherman Kardatzke, owner of Not Just Rocks Lapidary Supply and sincere hobby enthusiast of precious stones, crystals, and rocks.

For those who see me with regularity, I tend to wear a lot of 18” crystal necklaces of many different varieties. At this point, I probably have at least thirty or more of them and that number only continues to grow with every year. While many may argue that crystals don’t really do anything except look nice, I’ve seen much of my health change incredibly just in wearing one of my necklaces and learned each of them carries specific healing qualities, with my favorite one being howlite, as it’s used to ward off and remove negative energy.

Nevertheless, for my first few years here in Toledo, a sponsee I had in recovery had a wife who repaired my crystal necklaces whenever they broke. She did amazing work, but sadly one day a few years ago she said she wasn’t open to doing that type of work anymore. When she had no suggestions for who could help me in the future with that type of work, I began having a pile of broken crystal necklaces grow, usually due to the cheap strings and/or clasps that were used to originally make them. Thankfully, last year that changed when I met Sherman Kardatzke at the Toledo Gem and Rockhound Club annual show in September.

Every year I tend to go to this show solely looking for new crystal necklaces to wear or precious stones to place around my home or to carry in my pocket. During this past show though, I decided to go with a different purpose, one that mainly looked for a merchant who could repair my growing pile of broken necklaces. Most of the vendors I met there weren’t interested in repairing them though and were only looking to sell what they had. And when a few did offer to repair them, it was for prices far higher than what they were worth. I was about to give up until I came to the last vendor table where I’d meet Sherman.

Outgoing, cheerful, upbeat, energetic, and an all-around nice guy, Sherman answered all my questions and offered to repair my necklaces for an affordable price. He said he’d even make them far stronger at that. I gave him one of my broken necklaces to start and he told me to come back the next day to the show where he’d have it ready. And sure enough, it was!

Ever since then, I’ve been giving him all my necklaces to repair where each have come back with far stronger wire and magnetic clasps. In the process, I’ve built a working friendship with Sherman and become very grateful in getting to know someone who’s vastly knowledgeable in this area of expertise.

Sherman lives in Adrian, Michigan, but comes to Toledo quite often to run the Toledo Gem and Rockhound Clubhouse, which isn’t too far from my home. There, I’ve come to learn a lot about an entire hobby I never knew much about and seen a passion in Sherman that is indeed special. Sherman has now saved a good number of necklaces in my collection and has even added to my collection with the creation of new ones I didn’t have.

So, I’m thankful for my growing connection with Sherman, for his knowledge with crystals, rocks, and precious stones, for his ability to repair necklaces I loved that I thought were broken for good, for creating new necklaces for me from other crystals I never had, and for him just being a good-natured gentleman who was more interested in sharing his gift with me at the start than in making me a sale. For all of this and more, it’s why I’m dedicating today’s Grateful Heart Monday entry to you Sherman Kardatzke, please keep doing what you do!

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

“Lunana, A Yak in the Classroom”, A Moving Testimony Of A Film About Where True Happiness Comes From…

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday where I share my weekly writing entry in gratitude. For today, I’d like to express my gratefulness for a 2022 Academy Award nominee in the Best Foreign Picture category titled, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”, a movie that is a moving testimony of where true happiness comes from.

“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” is based upon the true story of a young man named Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) from Bhutan who dreams of moving to Australia to pursue his dream of a singing career. Having completed four of his five mandatory years of training as a teacher for the government, Ugyen is tired of doing that career path and considers quitting, especially after getting his final assignment, which is at the most remote school of his country in the mountain village of Lunana. With a population of only 56 people and an eight-day hike to get there from the closest town, Lunana is the last place Ugyen wants to be at. But, after considerable urging by his grandmother to complete his last teaching assignment, Ugyen sets off on the journey into the mountains with two guides, Michen (Ugyen Norbu Lhendup) and Signye (Tshering Dorji). It’s overly apparent how at peace and grateful Michen and Signye are with what they are given from the land and the people who help them along the way, and how ungrateful and frustrated Ugyen is with his current life’s circumstances. It becomes even more apparent the difference in attitudes upon his arrival in the village where Ugyen is greeted with the warmest showing and unconditional love that should melt anyone’s heart, but all Ugyen can think of is how quickly he can turn around and head back home to the life he thinks he’s meant to be living. That all begins to change though when he meets a very young bright-eyed class captain named Pem Zam (playing herself), who somehow finds a way into Ugyen’s heart. “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” tells the wonderful story of how one young man ends up travelling what some say is the longest distance to travel in our world, that being from living in our minds to one of living in our hearts.

While I wrote the other day of how so many films and television shows these days seem to be becoming so dark and depressing, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” stands the complete opposite and most definitely moved my soul. Having been filmed on a measly $300,000 budget in the actual remote village of Lunana where nothing but solar power exists and only when the sun is fully out, I was blown away at how real the film still felt. I learned the director wasn’t even able to review his daily footage because of his lack of electrical power. To have a film of this caliber shoot on such limited constraints and move me as much as it did says a lot. In contrast, many of these dark and depressing big studio films these days cost upwards of $50 million to $150 million. Nevertheless, on some level, this film felt so real to me that I actually thought I was watching a documentary about the life of these villagers!

One of the biggest reasons why I was moved so incredibly by “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” is how much I could relate to Ugyen’s spiritual journey to find himself. Having once been a big city kid myself who thought that having more meant a better life, only to discover that having less brought about far greater contentment in life, I saw strong similarities between myself and Ugyen. I also experienced plenty of gratitude for the villagers in this remote location who have learned to appreciate all of God’s beauty in each other and in the land around them.

In our society today, we often overlook the things that are beautiful right around us, like the bald eagle I would have missed seeing years ago, but thankfully saw in a farm field I was driving by the other day, who was just staring at me as I drove by. Instead, we often are constantly immersed in our phones and other technology, missing out on some of the best things to see that don’t cost a thing. Seeing the life of these remote villagers find happiness in just singing, communing, and supporting each other, I ultimately felt a ping in my heart by the end of the film wishing I could go spend a week with them.

I feel so many of us have forgotten in this world how to be thankful for what we have, even on the smallest of level, and “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” was a great reminder of both that and how far I’ve come from the days where I once thought I knew were happiness came from, only to discover that sometimes happiness comes in just being with another and sharing with them a piece of my heart.

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

Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday where gratitude remains the sole expression of my writing at the start of every week, which for today is for a woman named Taran Chellis New, a real estate agent in the Tampa, Florida area for the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group, who truly was a diamond in a lot of rough for my partner Chris and I during our short five weeks we attempted to make a move for a potential job offer Chris received that ended up in the end being a bust.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks that came at the onset of Chris fielding this potential job offer was the lack of help we were given in the relocation process. The human resources department of the place Chris was to be working for didn’t offer anything in the way of financial assistance, yet promised they’d help at least provide resources when we came to Tampa for a week trip in place of our cancelled vacation to Cozumel. When we arrived in Tampa though, we attempted to reach out to the HR department to ask where we should begin our search, but we received no contact back. Because of that, I decided to ask our hotel manager, Emilee, for help. I figured she at least would guide us to something to start our search for a future place to live. She immediately got in touch with a friend of hers named Melanie who worked for the Berkshire Hathaway Group as well, who quickly put us in touch with one of their agents, Taran.

During the course of our week in Tampa, Taran made time for Chris and I in her busy schedule, even on such short notice. She took us around on two separate afternoons to see various homes for rent and for sale and even drove us through various towns outside the city to show us all the possibilities. We were provided a wealth of information from her, enough to help us limit our focus to the exact type of home we were looking for and a more precise location of where we wanted to live in the Tampa area. Even better, she got us in contact with a friend of hers, Earl, a mortgage loan broker, who got us pre-approved for a nice amount.

I was amazed at how friendly Taran was throughout it all, even in the level of stress I most certainly carried outwardly, and how she went over and above for two individuals she had never met who had no idea of where to even begin a search that felt mammoth to us. Even when we told her we probably wouldn’t be buying anything in the first three of Chris’s employment and that I’d be remaining back in Toledo during that period of time, she continued to go to bat for us, looking for rental options for Chris, sending us one lead after another.

Chris and I consistently felt welcomed in her presence and enjoyed all the time we had with her in person and over the phone during out week trip to Tampa. Taran was a true joy to be around and provided us everything that Chris’s potential new HR department didn’t. And while the whole prospect of a new life and new job in Tampa eventually fell through for us, Taran remained optimistic and said she looked forward to seeing us again, even letting us know she’d be opened to passing Chris’s resume off to her husband’s company for any potential leads.

In the end, while the move to Tampa and potential new position for Chris was one that didn’t happen, Taran was the bright spot through it all and someone we both promised we’d work with again if God were to guide us back there with another opportunity. So, Taran, thank you so much for shining through all the darkness Chris and I experienced during the five stressful weeks we had in this relocation process. You truly were a beautiful diamond in a lot of rough and while our move didn’t happen, you were the best part about it all and precisely why I’m dedicating today’s Grateful Heart Monday entry to you.

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