Category: Words To Live By

Given that it’s the start of the holiday season again, I was trying to think of a topic to talk about specifically related to this time of the year. Interestingly enough, what I came up with is something that’s been in the news quite a bit lately and it deals with Starbucks.

It appears as if many people have been in an uproar lately about the “holiday” coffee cups Starbucks is using this season. In years past, the ones they used were a lot more festive, wishing people happy holidays and having plenty of creative designs on them. But this year, they are completely blank with the exception of their logo and being the color red.

According to the Starbuck’s vice president of design and content, “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” Yet there’s been an enormous amount of people who have been extremely unhappy about this move, accusing them of being too politically correct and destroying part of the good cheer of Christmas.

I honestly have to say one word on this issue that people are making out of this.

Really?

During a time when our world seems to have one violent act happening after another both on our home soil and abroad, I cannot understand why anyone would make this an issue. Add in the fact of all the other sufferings going on around the world, I’m truly struggling to understand why anyone feels the need to make the design of a company’s coffee cup such a big deal?

Truthfully, I applaud Starbucks for their decision this year on the design of their coffee cups. In this day and age, people seem to find any number of reasons to sue or complain about something, thus businesses are doing everything they can to avoid a PR nightmare. Thus I completely understand why Starbucks made the decision they did.

Nonetheless, I fall back on my main point here and repeat, our world has a lot more problems going on within it these days than what kind of cup a coffee business is using for the holiday season. Maybe if we just opened our hearts a little more, we might see how Starbucks is only trying to create unity amongst everyone this festive season. And maybe, if we all stopped complaining about things such as this, and instead start channeling that energy into praying or helping those less fortunate, our world might just be able to grow a little brighter this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I wish each of you a happy start to the holiday seasons well…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Why don’t people take the time anymore to pick up a phone and call those they miss to say hello? I’ve been pondering this question a lot lately given the number of times I’ve had different friends text me saying hello and that they miss me, yet rarely, if ever, are any of them taking the time to pick up the phone and do the same with me.

Honestly, it’s really hard for me to even consider any of them a friend when this happens, especially after I try calling them as soon as I receive their text and get nothing but their voicemail. For awhile I didn’t have texting on my phone enabled for this very reason. But now that I do, I find this to be a growing trend with many I know, as if more and more are withdrawing into themselves and making less and less personal contact.

Maybe this is why our world is dealing with so much depression, anxiety, loneliness, and despair? Is our technology leading us to become more selfish, thinking only of what we need and want, rather than what others do?

I don’t have the answers to this, I only know how I feel when I receive these types of text messages and it’s never good. I usually wonder when it happens if these people are just checking a box to say they reached out to me.

While I may use texting to confirm appointments and other engagements, I try to never use it for the purposes of reaching out to someone I haven’t spoken with in a long while. Because the reality is that there are people out there who treasure hearing the voice of those they care about, much more so than getting a few digital words on the display of their phone.

So the next time you find yourself thinking about someone you haven’t talked to in a good while, do me a favor, please, pick up the phone and call them. Take five minutes of your time to verbally tell them you were thinking about them and know in doing so, you’ll probably not only make their day, but you might just feel a lot better about yourself as well…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Sadly, just over a week ago there was another major terrorist attack in Paris, a place that already suffered from a deadly one back in January. More than 100 people have died this time around with many more injured, all from once again a radical religious organization who firmly believes their actions are justified. I honestly can’t and probably never will understand how anyone can kill innocent people all in the name of their Higher Power. So while my heart goes out to all those who were impacted from this recent tragedy, I can’t help but think about the mindset of each of the individuals who were behind this coordinated attack.

What could actually bring someone to the point of believing that killing mass numbers of people is what a Higher Power would want? I guess the answer to that question all depends on the Higher Power each has created for themselves. In my case, I firmly believe in an unconditionally loving and compassionate God who cares about everyone and everything. But I also know there are those out there who feel God loathes and detests certain types of people. Case in point, I’ve met plenty of Christians who have told me that their God hates gay people and the lives gays live. The fact is, if there are people who have a God like that, then I guess I can see how there are those out there in the world who have a Higher Power that calls on them to kill others for Its glory.

But truthfully, I find it extremely sad that anyone can have a Higher Power who leads them to hate, be angry, and even murder someone else. I feel within the core of my very being that the only reason why I was brought here was to love everyone as best as I can without any judgment. And if there is any possibility that all of us were brought here for that very same reason, how do we steer so far from that to the point of killing others?

Regardless of the answer, the Paris attack has left me pondering the state of our world once again, as it seems like there is more and more violence and bloodshed happening these days. And honesty, what good has come out of any of it? As far as I can see, it’s only led to more fear and more violence and less love on our planet.

So as I mourn those who lost their lives in this terrible extremist attack in Paris, I know the only thing I can do is to continue doing what I’ve been doing each and every day and that’s to love as Christ did, without any judgment, without harming another, and with as much compassion as I can muster from my soul. Beyond that, I’m going to keep praying for healing, love, and light for the rest of the planet…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson