Category: Words To Live By

People put political signs up in their yards all the time. With the upcoming mayoral race here in Toledo, that’s in fact what many are doing in the surrounding area. When my partner approached me about placing a specific candidate’s sign in our own yard, I said I wasn’t comfortable with it. And in all truthfulness, I’ve never really been displaying anything political at wherever my place of residence has been.

I actually try to completely steer clear of politics on all levels for one reason and one reason only. There’s too much slander that often goes on between candidates. Whether it’s for mayor, governor, senator, congressman, or president, I find that much of the political system has become weighed down with too much negativity and gossip, in other words, backstabbing. And these are things I don’t wish to involve myself in, as they only make me feel more irritable and judgmental in life. Thus the idea of having a sign with a candidate’s name on it in my yard doesn’t quite appeal to me.

And regardless of whether there is or isn’t any of that slander going on, I feel the presence of a sign in my yard would take away from the serenity I’m trying to create within it. Currently, when one passes by my place of residence, most often what’s commented on is the serenity they feel from my gardens and yard. But I feel that if I had a political sign sitting smack dab in the middle of it, that it could change that and even polarize those that live around me. What I most want when anyone passes by my home is to feel a sense of peace rather than possibly be triggered by a sign supporting a specific politician.

Thus, as much as this frustrated my partner a little when I refused to allow him to place his favorite mayoral candidate’s sign in our yard, I honestly believe that it was the healthiest thing to do. And while this doesn’t mean I’m not going to support a specific mayor or anyone else who runs in some future election, I’d just rather not create the potential for more separation between others and me. But even more importantly, I’d like for people to continue seeing and enjoying the beauty of God’s nature in my yard, instead of thinking about something political every time they pass on by…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

I often wish that money wasn’t such the driving force of most of society, but unfortunately throughout history it seems like it has been and still is. And it truly feels as if it’s one of the most frequently talked about topics because of this. While I do understand that having money is important so that each of us can provide for our families and ourselves, what bothers me is the greed I see that frequently becomes attached to it. Gordon Gekko in Wall Street said that “Greed Is Good”, but I beg differ as I ultimately feel that greed isn’t good at all, not one bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been guilty of being greedy myself, especially with money in this lifetime. There was a time when I was living with close to seven figures tied to my name and yet I was always worried I didn’t have enough. During that time, I sought out the latest and greatest of everything, constantly tossing aside items that were still functioning quite well. What I threw away was mind-boggling. From food to electronics to vehicles to houses, I never had much of an appreciation for any of what my abundance of money afforded me.

It wasn’t until I lost much of that abundance and my ability to earn a living, did I begin to realize how much I had allowed greed to consume my life. Once I finally did though, I began making adjustments in my day-to-day living to start appreciating what I had. That’s when I stopped getting rid of all those things that were still usable and it’s when I began taking care of what I did buy with my money and having greater gratitude for it.

Case in point, after eight years of taking care of my computer and about five with my cell phone, I finally have to break down and go purchase new ones for both, as they are beginning to no longer function. At some point, my eight-year-old car with close to 200,000 miles on it will follow suit as well. But that’s a far cry from the time in my life when I used to buy new computers, new phones, or new cars every year or every other year and simply trade in or throw away the old ones without batting an eye.

Looking back on the changes I’ve made to move away from these old behaviors, I realize my greed was always tied to me looking for happiness outside of myself. I’ve mentioned this a number of time before in my writing when I say that I learned happiness was never going to come from any person, place, or thing. In fact, the more I had in any of those areas, the more I only wanted. And the more I only wanted, the more I became a greedy person. Sadly, too many of us on this planet learn to be like this solely because we’re raised that way. And unfortunately, when we are, it can carry over into any business we create.

Recently I faced this with the Veterinarian practice I take my cat to. With each visit, there has been an increasing number of miscellaneous charges that have been thrown on our bill with great explanations of why they had to be there. Yet upon calling to other Veterinarian practices in the area, the same services were being provided at a much lower cost with an equal amount of quality.

I really do find it saddening that so much of our world is geared this way, constantly striving to acquire more and more money and the things it can buy. I wish society wasn’t so greedy. I wish we all would become a lot more grateful for what we do have instead of being frustrated for what we don’t, and stop believing that acquiring more money will make things better for us, because it never does. The only thing that has made my life any better and never caused me to become a greedy person in life has been a much closer relationship to my Higher Power.

While I wish I could change the path of greed through my words here and help people to see the lessons I’ve learned about this negative trait, I know that people in their own time will come to see it for themselves. Regrettably, mine had to come through a lot of pain and suffering, but hopefully yours won’t have to be that way…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

I heard the other day that Facebook is beta testing a possible new feature for all its users. It’s a potential “Dislike” button for the postings people do on their personal pages. While I can say I’m not really surprised that this might be the next thing I see showing up on my own page one day soon, I must say I’m not overly thrilled about it, mainly because I think it’s only going to spur on more negativity in life.

There are many people out there on Facebook who post very personal things about their life from the struggles they are going through to the triumphs they are having in life. Then there are others who place pictures and videos of things they adore such as their family or their pets. And some like myself put their artistic work out there on their pages such as the comic strips they draw, the articles they write, the poems they compose, or the quotes that uplift them. I feel that disliking any of these things would basically be similar to putting a stamp of disapproval on someone’s head with each click of the button.

I already struggle with the fact that I rarely see many likes at all on my own Facebook re-postings of my blog, yet I’m definitely grateful for the one or two that I do get with them here and there. But think about the possibility of me getting those one or two likes and then having a dozen or more dislikes at the same time with something I wrote from my heart and soul that took me several hours to compose. Not only would that be a serious slap in my face, it would cause me to reconsider why I’m even sharing my articles with the world at all.

Now take a person who posts those cute videos or pictures of their family, friends, or of themselves that bring them happiness and joy. Their only purpose of posting it was to share that happiness and joy with the world. But imagine them now having to receive several dozen dislikes because of the negativity that’s out there in the world. Personally, I believe that having those dislikes would only cause more harm and suffering to those that are on the receiving end of them.

I know that YouTube has had one of these dislike buttons for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never once hit it for anything I’ve watched. To me, a person wouldn’t be sharing something out there for the world to see if it wasn’t something that moved them in some way. And just because it might not move me in the same way it did them, it doesn’t justify me being able to give them a thumbs-down of disapproval. Look, the world already has so much disapproval out there, so why do we need to have yet another way added to our lives that could possibly only create more of it?

The bottom line is that I don’t feel like it’s a spiritually uplifting thing for me to ever dislike anything that comes from another. Disliking it is really nothing more than me placing my judgments on it or them. So rather than dislike it, isn’t the higher path to just move on to another posting? Sadly, many would probably disagree and instead revel on having an option to show their disapproval of something else in life. Thankfully I’m not one of them so if that dislike button should eventually be added, I certainly hope the Facebook team will also provide the ability to turn the feature off. Why? Because I honestly feel it’s only going to create more negativity in this world and nothing more and don’t we already have enough of that?

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson