Category: Words To Live By

One of my fraternity brothers, Felix, sent me the following on a Facebook message recently that he felt really would be a great blog topic for me. I agree, as after reading it, it left me pondering the message behind it for a good long while…

“My wife grew up thinking that having water/ice dispensers in the fridge door was a life goal. I grew up thinking if you had a basketball hop with a clear/plexiglass backboard, you were rich. What are some things you thought were indicators of wealth when you were a kid?”

As a kid, having Air Jordan sneakers was probably the biggest thing I thought indicated you were wealthy, given their $120 price tag back then. A close second to that would have been someone who had a full-size video game in their home, just like one you’d see in an arcade back in those days. To round out the trifecta of what I thought represented wealth as a kid, was anyone who had cable in their home, especially HBO. As a kid, I had none of these things and I coveted each of them in those who had them. I longed and longed and longed to have what I didn’t and one day, when the tide turned, when money came into my life, I was able to obtain those things, and guess what, none of them mattered in the end. I’ve come to learn that acquiring what most think represents wealth doesn’t ultimately matter. Why? Because it doesn’t bring ever-lasting happiness.

Having the most amazing car doesn’t bring ever-lasting happiness. I’ve had one and all it brought was a temporary and quickly fleeting sense of happiness. Having a humongous home in an exotic locale doesn’t bring true happiness either. I’ve had that too and all it brought me was the same, a temporary and quickly fleeting sense of happiness. This list is endless of the things that I thought at varying points in my life represented indicators of wealth and were initially life goals of mine. Home theater systems, video game consoles, vacations to faraway places, the latest phone with all those gadgets built into it, state of the art computers, blah, blah, blah, when I’ve had them, I was happy for a moment, until I wasn’t. In those first moments of having them, I always felt I had finally arrived. I finally had what my mind thought represented being rich. Having acquired something most others didn’t, initially made me feel good. And for those brief moments, I believed I had finally become someone in a world that was always so easy for me to feel like I was nobody.

Nowadays, I don’t have any of those things that most people in this country would associate to having richness and wealth. Ironically though, those who live in third world countries would probably say otherwise, as living in the humble home I do with running water and a hot shower is one that represents having wealth to many of them. But, chasing whatever one associates to wealth that can be acquired on this planet, regardless of whatever it is, eventually becomes a futile effort. If one’s path is to seek something that another has that they label in their own minds as having richness, it ultimately leads down a path that goes nowhere, where happiness diminishes more and more, until one is constantly seeking one shiny thing after another they believe represents wealth.

This is why I seek a different type of richness now, a richness in spirit and in closeness to Source, or God if you may. Having that type of richness is the only thing that’s ever left me feeling complete in a world that often feels so dam incomplete. It’s a joy like no other. Label it however you will, the joy I’ve felt from God when it’s come has been better than anything, any shiny wealthy and rich thing has ever given me. This is why I struggle so much now because I haven’t felt that in some time no matter how hard I’ve sought after it, which has left me teeter-tottering on the edge of going back down that endless quest of seeking after some worldly wealthy and rich thing all over again. While it may not be an ice/water dispenser, or a clear/plexiglass hoop either, whatever it is, I know there will always be something beyond each thing I associate to wealth, that my ego will want to get, all to keep proving to itself that I must be somebody in this world.

But you know when I’ll really know when I’ve finally arrived in the state I believe I’m meant to be in, a state that I believe represents a true wealth and richness? When I awake one morning and feel complete just being me, just feeling that deep love for God and for just being alive taking one breath after another, as experiencing that feeling is a joy like no other…a joy that I never found on my endless quest to acquire one thing after another that I kept associating to having richness and wealth…

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

Is anger growing on our planet? Or is it just me? I normally am not an angry person myself, but honestly, it feels like there is a growing energy of people on edge, ready to blow at the slightest thing that irritates them and I’m really struggling with that, as I’m extremely sensitive to it all.

Growing up with anger present more than not in my family household, I cringe when anyone these days is yelling or raising their voice or releasing anger in some way. Case in point, I was on the highway the other day driving 62 in a 60-speed limit in the middle lane when suddenly an 18-wheeler to my right laid on their horn for more than 2 minutes at me because I was going too slow in their opinion. It definitely rattled my chain quite a bit. This incident is so symbolic of how I see our world is becoming. where more and more people would rather be angry than not.

Our world resembles so much like one of those old kettles on the stove now, one that keeps reaching that boiling point where it emanates that loud scream-like noise each time it does, which roughly translates to one terrible tragedy after another, one we keep seeing in the news that’s violent in nature. Heck, it’s become a regular thing on my street these days to hear people ragefully screaming from within their own homes at another, especially late at night.

Why are people so angry? Is it because of the state of our world? The state of our country? The state of this pandemic and other growing diseases? The state of our economy? The state of our financial status? Or….is it simply due to the state within each of us? Maybe the real reason why there is so much anger right now is that all the stuff so many of us have kept suppressed for years, if not for our lifetime, is finally surfacing, forcing us to face it? Unfortunately, many are still trying to avoid doing that by choosing either addiction or lashing out in anger at another to deal with it each time it arises.

I’ve come to learn in my own spiritual journey that when I’m angry, it’s never about someone else, even if there is some event that seems to trigger that feeling within me. It’s ALWAYS about me. ALWAYS. But sometimes I don’t see it right away and instead regrettably end up taking it out on another, hurting them in the process, only furthering this anger problem on our planet.

The anger in our world will never go away until we address all the anger going on within us and find its true source. Unfortunately, most are prone to believe their anger is the fault of another. I can promise you that even if everything actually went out way, every single day, and even if everything we think should be happening in the way we want, actually did happen in that way, we still are going to remain angry people until we address all our unresolved issues, traumas, wounds, past pains, and the like. And just because they are in the past doesn’t mean they are truly gone. Just because you may not feel angry at some past negative part of your life right now, doesn’t mean its fully healed either. A great example of this was someone lashing out in anger at me recently when they thought I was using them, when I wasn’t. While my actions might have seemed like I was from their perspective, I honestly believe it was simply a triggering event from them allowing themselves to be used many times in the past by others.

Nevertheless, whenever I’m feeling angry, there is only one solution I’ve found to dispel it, and that’s not to take it out on another, as doing so only leaves me feeling guilty and still angry, often at myself in the process. The solution is prayer, even if I don’t know the true purpose and efficacy of it, given how many prayers often seem to go unanswered in this world. Because whenever I’m angry and choose to pray, once I find my heart during it, where tears flow from my eyes, the anger always leaves me, leaving behind a cooled down kettle, and a person far more open to unconditional love and understanding.

Look, our world is a ticking time bomb right now, and the explosions only seem to be getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I hope for the sake of each of us, that we stop blaming others for any anger that arises within ourselves and instead start taking a hard look at why we’re getting angry in the first place. When we stop lashing our anger outward and instead start addressing the source of it within us, our world will become one more filled with peace than volatility, as we become one more at peace with ourselves and everyone around us…

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

People always say you get what you pay for, especially when you try to cut corners in life, and due to my own ego, I’ve had to learn that lesson far too many times, including one just recently when the air conditioner in my vehicle began having a minor issue again.

About a year ago, my car’s AC was on the fritz. So, I took it into a local car repair shop I frequent often whenever I have any need of a repair. It’s a shop I trust, as I know the manager well and consider him a friend. All they needed to do was recharge it, essentially filing the refrigerant back up and placing dye in it as well for the sake of seeing if there were any pronounced leaks. Thankfully, there weren’t, and it was an inexpensive repair to get my car’s AC running smoothly again.

Zoom forward a year later to a very hot and humid afternoon about a week ago, where I noticed a slight increase in the AC’s temperature coming out of my car’s vents. I wondered if my AC needed another recharge as I was told by the car repair shop the year prior it probably had a very small leak. Rather than taking it back to them though to do another recharge, I opted for a cheaper alternative. So, I took it to a local auto parts store where a friend works. There, his boss was willing to have me buy some refrigerant ($60) that he’d put it my vehicle for me, which would roughly save me between $60 and $80 from what I would have been charged at the car repair shop. After he was done with the free service, I was left with an AC system blowing out nothing but hot air, as compared to the mostly cold air it had blowing prior to the refrigerant being added by him. I had no choice at that point but to take my car back to the local car repair shop.

For the next 16 hours or so, I’d spend most of that time beating myself up, not getting any real sleep, wondering if I had caused more of a problem in trying to save a buck. When I finally got the call late the next morning, I discovered all that had happened was that my AC system had been overcharged. In other words, the man who had done the quick fix for me had put too much refrigerant in my vehicle causing the system to shut completely done. Once the entire AC system had been evacuated and refilled, it was returned to its normal functioning.

While I once again had to learn this invaluable lesson that has repeated many times in my life, I did have some good news come out of it. Not only was I able to get my money back from the refrigerant I had bought at that parts store, but the local repair shop also didn’t charge me their AC diagnostic fee, because they knew exactly the source of the problem given the details I had told them. Yet, while the cost of this entire process didn’t set me back much, it did cause me an undue level of stress and anxiety.

How many times I’ve done things just like this in my life, always trying to save a dollar somewhere, is countless. Trying to cut those corners and make out more ahead than behind, only to cause myself more problems and usually more financial hardship in doing so, it’s never worth it. You truly do get what you pay for, or in this case, what I didn’t pay for, which I pray I’ll clearly remember the next time I’m presented with a potential solution to some problem I’m having, where it seems like it will cut a corner for me and save me a dollar, where I know it won’t…

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