Category: Thought For The Day

After my friend Lee’s recent visit, I wanted to share a few quotes surrounding what I feel a true friend like him means, as each of the following could very easily describe him…

“A friend is someone who can see the truth and pain in you even when you are fooling everyone else.” (Unknown)

“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” (Ed Cunningham)

“Being a good friend doesn’t mean you always have all the right words to say. Sometimes it means you just know when to be a good listener.” (Katrina Mayer)

“How beautiful it is to find someone who asks for nothing but your company.” (Brigitte Nicole)

“Friendship means understanding, not agreement. It means forgiveness, not forgetting. It means the memories last, even if contact is lost.” (Unknown)

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

Today’s quotes surround the sad reality that most addicts tend to blame others for their problems…

“Addiction, at its worst, is akin to having Stockholm syndrome. You’re like a hostage who has developed an irrational affection for your captor. They can abuse you, torture you, even threaten to kill you, and you’ll remain inexplicably and disturbingly loyal.” (Georges Simeon)

“Blaming is what addicts do in order to make themselves feel better about their addiction. Finding someone or something to blame helps them feel like their addiction isn’t the real issue.” (Unknown)

“Too often, the people closest to the addict don’t really want to admit there is a problem. They minimize or justify the addict’s destructive behaviors, like the addict erroneously blaming everyone else for their own problem, all while ignoring the glaring evidence of the one who is really sick, that being the addict themselves.” (Andrew Arthur Dawson)

“It’s important to fully understand the disease concept of addiction. That way you can step away from the “shame and blame game”, the one where you find yourself resenting the addict for always taking ownership of their disease.” (Andrew Arthur Dawson)

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

Today’s quotes surround the subject of what it means to be a good listener and why listening is so important…

“Becoming a good listener, you are able to connect with others on more levels and develop stronger, deeper relationships.” (John C. Maxwell)

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” (Stephen Covey)

“Be a good listener…It makes the person who’s speaking to you feel loved, cared for and worthy of being heard.” (Wayne Dyer)

“Be a good listener, don’t judge and don’t put boundaries on someone else’s grief.” (Jodi Picoult)

“A good listener doesn’t fill the silence with chatter, make the conversation about themself, try and top the speaker’s story, sprinkle bits of wisdom that don’t apply, insert their own conclusions, wisdom and ideas until asked, or get uncomfortable with the emotions of the speaker.” (Unknown)

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