Category: Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday! While I do my best to live a life of gratitude, I also choose to start each of my week’s now in this blog by focusing on one thing I’m truly grateful for, which for today, is going to be my 12 Step recovery work from a life of addiction.

I used to think that the only thing that was important when it came to addiction was to remain clean and sober from the substance of the addiction itself and if I did, everything else would work itself out in my life. So, I spent a very long time doing just that, except I did nothing about all those unsettled insides of me. Eventually, I became so broken because of it and turned into nothing more than a dry addict. I remained just as sick as when I had engaged in each of the addictions themselves and that’s because I didn’t realize that the disease of addiction wasn’t so much about the substance of the addiction itself, as it was about healing what was going on underneath it all within me. Thank God I finally learned that when I accepted I couldn’t do this on my own anymore and opted to fully enter a life of 12 Step recovery.

Ever since, I have found so much more stability in life, as it’s the steps that led me to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. And through the process of turning my will and life over to the care of God, I was able to get honest with myself and start to find forgiveness in my heart for all the resentments I had carried for years. And through the process of finding forgiveness in my heart for all those resentments I had carried for years, I began to see vast numbers of character defects that had hurt both myself and plenty of others along the way. And through the process of beginning to see all those character defects that hurt both myself and plenty of others along the way, I found a desire to make amends and restitution. And through the process of making each of those amends and restitution, I started to develop a life of humility. And through the process of developing a life of humility, I learned that prayer and meditation and a number of other spiritual practices were going to be necessary to remain this way. And through the process of doing daily prayer and meditation and a number of other spiritual practices, I found a desire living within me to help others. And finally, through the process of helping others, I began to practice the 12 Steps of recovery in every facet of my life, which helped me to wake up one day and realized just how much more stable my life had become than before I ever began my 12 Step recovery work.

This is why I’m truly grateful for my 12 Step recovery work, because if it wasn’t for it, I’d still be a complete toxic mess, causing more chaos and disruption in this world, than doing my best as I do now, to create a little peace and joy in life for both myself and all others. But even more importantly, it’s because of my 12 Step recovery work that I not only have a much more unconditionally loving and forgiving heart today, but also a grateful one as well, one that is the very reason why I started Grateful Heart Monday’s in the first place! 🙂

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

I’m not sure if this would be in anyone else’s top ten list of what to be grateful for, but having a roof over my head and a place to call home is definitely in mine and the very thing I chose to write about in today’s Grateful Heart Monday entry.

Just as an FYI, the last time a global survey was done to see how many people were homeless in the world, it was found to be over 100 million people back in 2005. I’m sure that number would today would be far larger. But, as recently as 2015, a separate study was conducted where it was estimated that at least 1.6 billion people lacked adequate housing on our planet. While I’m truly sad to learn these statistics, I do thank God I’ve never been able to count myself as one of them.

Not once in this lifetime have I ever found myself truly homeless, and in a city like Toledo, where I reside now and where the temperatures often fall into the negative digits during the winter like this one, I find myself being even more grateful to God. People die every day because of homelessness. Many of them tend to freeze to death in harsh climates like this. Others also die from poor health or from violent crimes they either resort to or are a victim of. So, when the wind chill has led to -10 degrees and more than once in recent weeks and where the snow and ice have piled up outside my front door just recently, I have really been thanking my Higher Power for providing me a place to keep me warm from all those frigid elements.

In turn, I have found great compassion for the many homeless people I come in contact with now, including at the place I volunteer every Wednesday for my 12^th Step recovery work. There, the stories I regularly hear are heart-wrenching like people resorting to living in abandoned buildings with broken windows or on roach infested couches in drug homes or having to hop from one shelter to the next where sometimes they are even turned away.

I used to find it so easy to pass by those people on the streets holding those signs that say they’re homeless. How often I discounted them and simply assumed they were alcohol and drug users and needed to go get a job. I can’t do that anymore and instead am finding a lot more compassion for anyone who may be in a homeless situation because after all, I honestly can’t imagine myself standing on a corner in subzero temperatures trying to collect a few dollars to survive, especially in the state of health I’m currently in.

Nevertheless, God has always kept me warm with a roof over my head for the past 45 years of my life and for that, I’m truly thankful on this Grateful Heart Monday. Yet, at the same time, I find myself praying for everyone who can’t say the same, especially those who currently are dealing with homelessness themselves.

So, I pray that each of us who aren’t dealing with homelessness may find it within our hearts and souls to help anyone who is dealing with it in any way we can, even if it means simply offering a dollar to someone we might find ourselves passing by one day, standing on a corner, holding up a sign, during one of those harsh winter days…

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

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday, where gratitude becomes the front and center priority and purpose for my blog. Having a heart of gratitude is so critical to living a life free of negativity. That being said, what I’m most grateful for today is my partner Chris.

Chris has continued to stand by my side through thick and thin, supporting me in ways that I never thought anyone would or could. Up until I met him, I was 100% self-supportive, so it never mattered to me much when people came and went out of my life. But shortly after meeting Chris, my health began to decline and I started having to ask for help in my life on a regular basis, which was quite humbling and still is. And, from day one, Chris has done just that and been an incredible help to me on so many-a-day, especially on those where I’ve just wanted to give up and check out. He has always unconditionally accepted me, even with my diminished health and keeps on doing so day in and day for six years now. In my book, that’s definitely something to take note of and to be grateful for, because I have dated plenty of others who probably would have walked away long ago out of sheer frustration and exhaustion over my ongoing struggles.

Beyond this personal support, I’d also like to mention how grateful I am to have witnessed Chris’s spiritual growth ever since initially meeting him. He has not only found a renewed connection to his Higher Power, but also taken many steps forward to becoming a leader. Recently, he’s stepped up in that department to run point on an upcoming retreat for a spiritual men’s organization we are both part of. During this four-day weekend, he’ll be the head kitchen coordinator who will guide a team that will prepare three meals a day for over sixty men.

Lastly, I think it’s important to mention as well how extremely proud and grateful I am for my partner in his quest to becoming healthier on the physical level. Chris has utilized the 12 Steps of recovery over the past few years to help him lose close to 100 pounds, which is such a huge achievement for him, given his family’s struggles with obesity. Because of his hard work, I’ve seen him become far more physically active in his life. And in a world where obesity is becoming more and more prevalent and causing many health issues, I’m very thankful my partner has slowly been overcoming it one day at a time.

So, thank You God for my partner Chris, for his love and support of me, for his renewed leadership in life, and for his dedication to becoming healthier mind, body, and soul.

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