Category: The Power Of Prayer

My first entry of the new year. 2022. Wow! It’s hard to ponder that number given I was born in 1972, a time when phone calls were only able to be made on one rotary phone in my home with a very long cord! HA! Anyway, as we all embark upon another year, I reflect upon this last one, especially this past holiday season, one I never quite got into.

Overall, 2021 was such a hard year for so many of us. All the losses of life. All the COVID weariness. All the political unrest and drama. All the shootings. All of it just made it so very hard to get into this holiday season. I did my best though, even going to Chicago in early December with my best friend to see all that glitz and glamour that one of the biggest cities of this country shell out during the holiday season. But, for as much as I enjoyed the company of my best friend during that trip, the season still rang hollow to me. And no matter what holiday things I tried to take part in after that trip, it still felt as if I was living in a world where the holidays weren’t even taking place, which honestly was a first in my life, as up until this calendar year, I’ve always felt at least some of that Christmas cheer.

So, as I reflect and look ahead to another year, I’m praying, hoping, and maybe even begging that 2022 will be the year where joy returns, not just in my life, but in everyone else’s as well. So many have seemed so joyless over the past few years, especially in 2021. I think this pandemic truly has taken its toll upon life for countless numbers of us and while this virus keeps on sticking around, wreaking havoc upon our lives, something that continues to frustrate and bring fear to many of us, I have faith and hope that a major shift will happen in 2022 for the better…for all of us.

A shift that not only brings greater joy, but also ones that brings greater peace. Personally, I haven’t been at peace within myself for a very, very, very, long time. I have sought it, channeled it, and worked so very hard to find it, but it has continued to elude me, as it has so many I know, especially over the past few years. And COVID has made that all the harder, truly challenging each of us to smile in a world that has honestly been hard to smile in.

With every new year up until now, I’ve always had hopes for this to happen and hopes for that to happen, making resolutions, promises, and the like, most of which often falling to the wayside at some point, or never manifesting at all. This year though, I’m choosing to do something very different. I’m simply going to claim the energy I desire the most. I’m going to affirm it right now. And pray this indeed manifests, not just for me, but for all of us.

So, Source, God, whatever You are…our world needs far greater peace and joy right now. Not the peace and joy that comes from all those worldly things, but the true peace and joy that can only come from within, from just being alive and existing. I believe only You can help us find that within ourselves so I affirm that in 2022, because of You, we all will find far more of that very thing. Peace and joy will come into all of our lives in 2022, including mine. I thank You God on behalf of everyone on this planet for this…for the peace and joy we all are going to experience. Amen.

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

I regularly struggle with what words to say during my morning prayers surrounding the rest of the world given how chaotic our world seems to be becoming these days. I tend to think that everyone needs prayers on some level lately, as so many of us seem to be broken in some way, shape, or form. Recently, I came across a great prayer/blessing on one of the Facebook groups I’m part of that I felt was the perfect summation of what I often fail to pull together during my prayer sessions. Considering that, I wanted to re-share it in my blog, partially to not forget it, but more so because I think its message and all the positive energy it’s sending outward can help a lot of others if they start saying it along with me daily. Below is that prayer. I hope you get out of it as much as I do and will join me in saying it each day as I have been doing for some time now. Many blessings to you all…

“I now send white light and love to every continent, every island, all the rivers, lakes and streams, and all the oceans and seas, and I release this light to go wherever it’s needed the most to light up the darkest parts of the world, and I send white light and love to every single person and being I meet or encounter today, including myself, thank you!”

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

Do all human beings struggle with letting go of control? I tend to think so, but I think that struggle becomes even greater with those who are going through really tough times in life.

I find it’s always easy to let go of control when all bills are getting paid on time, when all personal relationships are doing just fine, when there are no health issues, and well, when I’m not going through any of those tough times. But as soon as I begin to, I find myself often attempting to usurp control elsewhere in my life to compensate for my lack of control during those tough times.

In the past few years, I’ve been going through an extended tough time, one that happens to be with my health and the chronic pain I go through, something that rarely seems to let up lately. Case in point, I had a notably difficult pain-filled day recently where I came home and began to nitpick apart my partner over things that felt oh so important to me at the time. I yelled, cursed, and screamed so much that I ended up leaving the house close to midnight and going for a drive to cool down. During it, I prayed and cried and started to realize just how much my pain levels were driving me to try to control so many things around me, especially with my partner.

I saw how all my repeated comments on what he did with his free time, or about his eating habits, or what he watches on television, or how he did his chores, or even how he treated me, were all just ways I was attempting at controlling something, seeing how I couldn’t control the very thing I really wanted to control, that being with what’s going on within me.  It’s then I realized how much I was becoming one of those micro-managing bosses I once had eons ago when I was in the corporate work force. And that didn’t sit too well with me at all because I never enjoyed working for any of those bosses back then.

As I pondered all this on that late-night drive, I also reflected on the rest of my life and saw how my repeated attempts at cleaning up my yard debris, pushing my sponsees through their step work, changing the structure of meetings I attend, and expecting friends to communicate with me exactly as I do with them, were just some of the many ways I’ve been attempting to control things in recent months, all in the hopes that each might distract me from the very misery I have with the tough times I keep going through.

The fact is, my life often feels so very out of control with the pain I continue to live with. And because I can’t seem to change this level of pain no matter what I try to do, my ego keeps resorting to repeated attempts to change plenty of things around me, hoping it might make me feel better somehow, but it never does. Instead, it only causes me greater suffering.

But on those rare days though, when my overall pain levels noticeably drop, I find myself going with the flow so much easier, letting things be as they are meant to, accepting everything in the way it presents itself as. Yet as soon as those pain levels return, I find I’m right back to my many attempts to usurp control somewhere in my life.

It’s a recovery 3rd step battle that’s for sure, one that I can look back on now in my life and see how all the periods I was going through those tough times, like when I was losing my business or my home, or when my parents tragically died, or when I lost a job, or when I went through a breakup with a partner, I always became more controlling. So, it’s quite apparent to me that my work for now is to learn how to let go of control during this extended tough time and the only solution I know of to help with this is to keep praying and asking God for help in the matter.

The reality is that I really don’t want to be a controlling person in life and am making great strides to change this part of myself. While I may not be able to change this severely tough time I am unfortunately still having to go through, I can at least work on letting go of all those repeated attempts I make to take control of things that never do pay off and only seem to cause me and plenty of others greater pain and suffering. Because in the end, the last thing this world needs, especially myself, is any greater pain and suffering…

Thank You God for helping me to see how my repeated attempts at taking control aren’t doing me one bit of good. Please help me to fully let go of this unhealthy behavior, as it’s only causing me and others greater pain and suffering. In the end, I know that letting go and letting You fully take over those reins of life, even when my pain remains great, will only help me to feel that much more peace and joy when this tough time finally passes…

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