Category: Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another entry of Grateful Heart Monday, which for today, in light of my solemn posting two days ago about the difficulty of revisiting my hometown in Poughkeepsie, New York, I wanted to express my gratitude for my visit there as well.

Just over a week ago now, I completed a trip to the place I grew up at and while it did have its challenges being there, mostly due to a slew of bad memories, there were plenty of experiences I believe are far more important to highlight that I’m extremely grateful for.

Probably the biggest of course is sharing a part of my past with my partner Chris. It was indeed the sole purpose of this trip and I can safely say that he has a much better connection to the life I had growing up, which has helped me to feel closer to him now because of it!

During the visit, besides enjoying driving him pretty much everywhere around town, I got to take him to Milanease, which is a Northern Italian restaurant that’s been there since 1971 and a place I dined at with my family countless times as a kid. Our meal there was absolutely fantastic and so was our waitress! Ironically the owner and his wife are still there running it and I got to spend a little time talking to them as well! Another thing to be grateful for from this trip was visiting the homes and grounds (that included some very pretty gardens) of Roosevelt and Vanderbilt, both being national parks in Hyde Park, which is the next town north of Poughkeepsie. Chris is a history buff and I really was grateful to see his eyes light up during the tours of both properties, places I absolutely enjoyed visiting frequently as a kid. And definitely something not to be forgotten in my gratitude list from this trip was our visit to a sweets shop called Café Aurora. Seeing Chris truly enjoy his blackberry Italian Ice at an establishment where I had tons of Italian Ices during my younger years was most certainly a treat! A few other grateful highlights included dining at an old-fashioned diner called The Palace, a place my father and I used to eat breakfast a lot at, taking a walk across the 1.3-mile railroad bridge that was converted back in 2009 into a state park walkway, and seeing the fireworks shot off from the middle of the Hudson River on July 4th.

While this trip’s focus was mostly on sharing pieces of my hometown with Chris, much of my childhood also included trips into New York City, so we opted to take one of the days to go there too. Riding on the Metro North train out of Beacon station was a lot of fun, as I got to show Chris all the cool things that you get to see along the Hudson River during the 1.5-hour travel time. He also had never seen Grand Central station where the train arrives into, so that quickly became a big highlight as well. From there, after splitting a freshly made croissant at one of my favorite bakeries in Grand Central, I took Chris to one of my preferred New York City pizza joints where we each got a large slice of pepperoni pizza, that was just as tasty as ever! Shortly after that, we headed to the top of World Trade One, something neither of us had ever done yet, even though we had both been up the former towers. I must say that technology has come a long way, as not only were the elevator walls fully digitized, but you’re also given an IPAD to carry around that shows you pretty much anything you are looking at! We made sure to get a few souvenirs to remember our visit as well, like the flattened penny I now have from both the old tower and the new one too. Without a doubt though, the highlight of the day was where we had dinner. For more than a decade, I’ve wanted to dine at Serendipity 3, an eclectic restaurant known for its frozen hot chocolate and huge desserts and for being used during the filming of two movies, that being One Fine Day and Serendipity. Chris and I actually got to sit in the same table used by Kate Beckinsale, John Cusack, and Molly Shannon, which I must say made me totally geek out.

All in all, between our visit to New York City and Poughkeepsie, I was thankful to create a number of positive memories with Chris, ones that certainly overshadow the painful memories from my past. So yes, plenty to be grateful for once again on another Grateful Heart Monday in my life…

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

Thanks for joining in to another Grateful Heart Monday where gratitude begins my week, which for today is for one of my sponsees, Aaron, who truly has lent me an incredible hand with my yard work so far this year.

As most of those who know me can testify to, I’m pretty obsessive-compulsive when it comes to my yard and gardens. Each year when spring arrives, one can usually find me outside doing work on them during much of the day. But over the past couple of years, I’ve been finding it harder to keep up with the attention to detail I like to place in them given my physical limitations I continue to endure. In light of that, this year I decided to ask for help, something in previous years I had too much pride and ego to do and usually paid the price in my body because of it. Thankfully though, I think God had a hand in placing Aaron in my life, not only for me to help guide him through the steps, but also for him to help me out with my outdoor burden.

While one might describe our property as the size of a postage stamp, you might be surprised at the amount of cleanup and upkeep it still takes to maintain. Being surrounded by a large number of 60+ year old maple trees (all in bordering neighbor’s yards), I must deal with an annual late spring onslaught of helicopters that pile up everywhere, from my gutters, to the ponds, in the gardens, and in the yard of course too. Many in my shoes might choose to just leave them be and let nature take care of itself, but given how many of them actually come down, it ends up causing more problems than not if I ignore them. One of my neighbors in fact ended up having clogged gutters and tons of little trees growing in them because he let them go for too long. On the other hand, I’m sure some would say how pretty they must look when falling, almost like large brown snow, but frankly, their beauty is grossly outweighed by the amount of late Spring cleanup I always get from them. Cleanup that even translates into having to remove all of my mulch and lay down close to 30 bags of new mulch.

That’s why I was so thankful that Aaron, who had been currently looking for work, agreed to come help me. Over the course of a few weeks, he always showed up on time and definitely was a hard and very thorough worker. I estimate that he probably saved me about 20 hours’ worth of work when all was said and done. While I’m sure most people think I’m crazy sitting out there with shop vacuums sucking up thousands of helicopters that land on my property, Aaron wasn’t one of them and never once complained or judged me for my OCD-based task.

I’m not going to deny the fact that I’m a perfectionist when it comes to maintaining my yard and gardens, because I really am. It’s definitely my outlet for former addiction energy, yet something far healthier that’s for sure. But, finding help that could meet my OCD-based standards is most certainly tough, except Aaron consistently met that and worked like a champ to keep to the detail I place in my yard and gardens.

Nevertheless, after hauling away at least several dozen hefty lawn and leaf bags filled with those helicopters, Aaron proceeded to assist me in removing all the mulch and place down the new batch as well. For most, this work would probably seem quite tedious and monotonous, yet Aaron gave it his all and simply jammed to music in his headphones the entire time he worked, never once complaining, even on days when the heat level was ridiculously high.

In the end, even though I did pay Aaron for his work, I believe it was far worth it because good help is often hard to come by these days. So yes, I’m truly grateful for Aaron who provided me much relief this year thus far in my outdoor work, both on a physical level, and in all honestly, on a mental and emotional one as well…

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

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