Category: Healing From Chronic Pain And Illness

Up until just recently, James Robertson was an average guy from Detroit, Michigan who was doing something on a regular basis that was most definitely anything other than average. What was it? He was walking to and from work, except it wasn’t just any walk. It was approximately a 21-mile walk that he did for almost 10 years, regardless of whatever the elements were outside. But even more impressive was the work ethic he maintained and impeccable attendance he kept throughout it all.

It all began back in 2005, when Robertson’s last vehicle, a Honda, died on him. Given the wage he was earning then, (now $10.55/hour) he realized he wasn’t going to be able to afford the cost of owning another vehicle. Unfortunately public transportation wasn’t necessarily his saving grace either. After repeated cutbacks to the local bus service, the walking portions of his daily hike to and from his factory job in Rochester Hills continued to grow to an eventual 21-mile long trek.

Yet Robertson never wavered through any of it.

He’d even show up to work soaked to the bone on days when it was a wet commute, still on time, and with a positive and upbeat attitude. Now that really says something doesn’t it?

Day in and day out, Robertson did this implausible journey to work for almost 10 years until just recently when his story became national news. Since then, something even more inspirational has transpired. A student from Wayne State University, 19-year old Evan Leedy, used GoFundMe, an Internet crowd-funding site, to raise money to help Robertson, which at the moment of me writing this had already reached an astonishing amount of $140,000. (Update 2/4/2015 – The amount is now over $230,000.)

So it appears Robertson’s days of taking those long arduous 21-mile walking commutes are over now. Yet he has remained humble through it all and even said on a Good Morning American segment he needs to be careful how he acts now because God’s blessings could be taken away at any time. That’s pretty incredible if you ask me.

It’s made me think of my many ego-filled days years ago when I once sat in my own warm vehicle commuting similar distances to work during torrential downpours or intense blizzards complaining about how long it was taking. Thankfully, it’s stories like this that have continued to help smash my ego and show me how others in this world have endured far greater than I ever have.

Thus I’m truly grateful for learning of this inspiring story about James Robertson from Detroit, Michigan. I’m grateful to know how dedicated he was for all those years to getting to work on time regardless of his unfortunate circumstances. I’m grateful there were so many people who came to his aid and offered him their love by donating some money to him. And I’m grateful to see the level of humility he’s been able to maintain through it all.

So James, I want to personally thank you for being such an inspiration to me and for your dedication to God. You are “The 21-Mile Man” who has shown me that even in life’s most frustrating moments, I should keep on going, one step at a time, and smile knowing in the long run that God will always see me through them all…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Sometimes I find spiritual lessons being taught to me in weird ways and I’ve learned they will generally repeat themselves when I’m not paying attention. The latest of which seems to have come my way via the online availability of my blog on the Internet.

I actually use GoDaddy to host my blog and for the most part, things have been relatively smooth sailing with them. But in recent months, my site has been down a handful of times, all occurring mostly on or around midnight. The only reason why I know this is that each of my entries are scheduled to post at 12:01am every day and usually I check shortly after that time to ensure they do. But several months ago, a posting didn’t occur as regularly scheduled, which led to an immediate phone call to GoDaddy for help. Unfortunately, that call turned into a several hour-long ordeal and a statement of the obvious, that there were some technical issues beyond my control. Why it took so long for me to reach that point in conversation with them was completely due to my own frustration of why my site was down. I must have asked them dozens of questions and tried about the same number of times to get my site to come back up on my own, all to no avail. In the long run, I threw my hands up in the air, went to bed, and awoke later that morning to find everything back to normal with my site.

Normally I wouldn’t think about any spiritual lesson coming from such an isolated incident as this. But when it began to repeat itself every couple of weeks to varying degrees why my site was either down or not functioning correctly, I started to pay more attention. That’s when I discovered that although the problems were always slightly different, I would consistently react the same when they occurred. With each, I’d make a long phone call to GoDaddy for at least 2+ hours and increase my stress and anxiety by doing everything I could to figure the problem out all on my own. None of it ever helped and the ending was always the same with my site being back up and running just fine by the time I awoke later each morning. The last occurrence of this was actually only last week, which caused the light bulb to finally click on above my head.

Maybe the Universe was trying to tell me to I needed to let go and trust more in life. And once I realized this, I wondered if this was also the answer to a prayer I’ve been saying for quite awhile now over the state of my health and healing. The last four months or so have been the hardest to endure in regards to this, which has often led me to pray for greater guidance and direction on what more I can do, given I’ve done so much already. While the answers to my prayers never seem to come in the way I want, I think in this case they came in a way that was known would get my attention. And it definitely did.

For every situation when my site was broken, down, or malfunctioning in some way, none of my actions in the wee hours of each of those mornings ever did any good. Essentially, they only stressed me out even more, especially because each of my site’s problems consistently resolved themselves all on their own, in their own time. So what if all of these downed blog situations were actually the answer to my ongoing prayers with my health and healing? What if I’m meant to just let go and trust that I’m doing enough? What if there truly is no other action I can do for my health at this point in time other than be patient with my Higher Power and myself.

My spiritual teacher is convinced I’ve received my answer and my gut is telling me the same. So I think the next time I discover my site is down or having problems late at night, I’m just going to turn my computer off, head to bed, and have faith it’s being taken care of. As for my health and healing, I’m going to do the same as well by trusting I’m doing enough to fully heal and that it will happen when it’s meant to.

Thank you Universe for another spiritual lesson learned, all through something as simple as a downed blog…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Today’s kind of an important anniversary for me. It’s actually the day I began this blog exactly two years ago. For 730 consecutive days now, I’ve posted an entry, the vast majority of which have been original spiritual reflections written from my day-to-day life experiences. I’m really quite grateful for this accomplishment, because it’s one more thing I have in life to show how dedicated I am to living a spiritual life.

Maintaining this blog has truly has transformed me in ways I never envisioned when I first began it as a homework assignment from a former therapist and my current spiritual teacher. I once said to them that journaling was totally stupid, but this blog is essentially just that, a journal of my life, and through it, I’ve found healing in areas I once believed was impossible to fix. I’ve also expanded my level of creativity and increased my confidence in my writing skill as well because of it. But most importantly, writing in my blog has helped me to get through so many days where I was severely hurting and extremely blue.

Don’t get me wrong though as there have been many times I’ve questioned whether I want to continue doing this daily exercise, especially when not too many people are actively reading it. But I’m reminded time and time again that I didn’t begin this blog for the purpose of having thousands of readers, I began it to help myself heal and spiritually grow, and that I have been doing for 2 years now.

In all actuality, I realize as I write this that I haven’t given up on anything I’ve undertaken in the past few years. That says a big something for my spiritual growth alone, as it wasn’t that long ago when I had pretty much given up on life and myself.

So one day at a time, I’m going to do my best to keep on writing about my experiences, strengths, and hopes in life, because I know in doing so, it will lead me even further into the love and light of my Higher Power, and maybe even help a few others along the way who end up reading any of these words…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson