Category: Words To Live By

I’m an overly sensitive individual and have always been that way. Anyone who knows me could tell you this. But it’s also quite apparent actually whenever someone makes fun of me or says something negative about me. And so often I hear each of them say just after they realize their comments impacted me so greatly that I need to develop a “thicker skin”. I disagree because the more I tried to develop that trait over the years, the more my heart became hardened to everything and everyone.

I definitely don’t want to have a hardened heart or one that has any thick walls around it. To be the loving, compassionate individual I’m regularly working on becoming requires my heart to remain open. And I believe that if I truly want to channel the unconditional love of God through me in this life, I can’t walk around having a “thick skin”.

But for all the times I did have a much “thicker skin”, I’d walk around with an attitude like I didn’t care about anything. And in all honesty, I ultimately didn’t. While that did help me to deflect people’s attempts at making fun of me or saying negative things of me a lot better, I constantly found myself being angrier and less connected to the world around me because of it. That’s only because a person who has a “thicker skin” is generally living more in their mind than in their heart.

I’m sure you’ve probably heard the saying that the greatest journey in life we can take is the one where we travel from the mind to the heart. I’ve been on that journey for quite awhile now and am finding myself living more in the latter than the former lately. While I do like the way it feels to operate more from my heart these days, it has resurfaced a lot more of my over-sensitiveness again.

Case in point, a casual friend of mine greeted me one day about a month ago, not with a hello, but with a comment about how skinny I was and how he wondered if I was sick. Regardless of his intention, his words hurt and my heart felt a lot heavier afterward. But regardless, I was glad nonetheless to feel how his words impacted me rather than to dispel a “thicker skin” based comment back towards him like I once would have done.

With my heart being a lot more opened now than ever before, I’m not a fan of making fun of people or saying anything negative about them, mainly because I feel the impact within them when I do. As for those who still do these behaviors quite often themselves, I’ve realized through my own spiritual journey to have compassion for them. I know now that it’s most likely a trait they forced themselves to develop solely to deal with the harshness the world brought them at some point in their life, just like it did for me growing up in a dysfunctional family and being bullied in school.

So for anyone out there who ever tells you that you need to develop a much “thicker skin”, I encourage you to take a moment, breathe, and do you best to ignore them. Try staying in your heart instead, even if it hurts, because in the end, you’ll remain much closer to your Higher Power if you do, than if you develop that “thicker skin”. As then you’re only going to start shutting out the sunlight of the spirit, and trust me, I’ve been there and it’s not a very good place to be…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Do you ever question why you are here? Ever wonder if you are doing what you feel you were brought here to do? These are the questions I’ve been asking my Higher Power a lot lately and trying to discern any guidance and direction hasn’t been easy.

There are those spiritual schools of thought who would probably say that it’s our job to go out there and find those answers ourselves, while there are the other spiritual schools of thought who would say it’s our job to be still and wait patiently for them to come. I’ve been a student of both at various times throughout my life, but lately I seem to definitely be one in the latter.

Waiting for guidance and direction though has without a doubt been the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to face in life. For what seems like an eternity ago, I prayed to God to cleanse my life from the poisons and toxicities I inherited in my genes and engaged in for far too many years. Since then, the results of those prayers haven’t been the ones I expected or hoped for. Instead, it feels as if I’ve been in a holding pattern now for several years, watching my mind, body, and soul go through many changes, some quite wonderful, with many others extremely painful. More than not though, I’ve had so many moments where the best I’ve been able to do is continue praying, alongside my daily practices of meditating, writing, and working my 12 Step recovery program.

So what is a person to do when those prayers go unanswered far longer than expected? Well, that’s precisely what my ego often tries to tell me. In the past, I’ve always given up on that “being still” mentality every time this has happened and instead forged some other path on my own. Unfortunately, none of those paths ever ended well, some were dead-ends, while the others were filled with nothing but thorns and brambles. Yet somehow, my ego was always satisfied that it was in charge and making decisions, even if they were poor ones.

But I’m different now, albeit more spiritually sound and because of this, I’ve been fighting all of my ego’s desire to take charge once again on just about every single day. It’s relentless though, as it keeps attempting to tell me that God has totally forgotten about me. “Take a look at how much pain you’re in! This isn’t working. Do something! Anything!” is the words I continue to hear from it on most days. Yet I haven’t done anything other than remain patient and trust that God is still with me and within me, guiding me out of the darkness, even when my ego is convinced that’s not so. I guess that’s a lot what remaining faithful is about in this spiritual school of thought.

The fact remains though that being still, even when everything looks so bleak is never easy. To keep on serving the God of my understanding through all my thoughts, words, and actions when I struggle to see the light on many of days is truly difficult. But, in the long run, I honestly believe that if I remain on this path, as hard as it is, that God will deliver me into a much better state of being. When that is, I don’t know. But I’m convinced that on the other side of this, I’ll finally start receiving some answers as to why I’m here and what I was brought here to do.

For now though, the thought I leave you all with is this. Maybe, just maybe, when we feel we have the absence of any clear guidance and direction in our lives and our prayers have seemingly gone unanswered, it’s a message to remind us that we’re already doing what we’re supposed to be doing and to keep on doing it until our Higher Power shows us the next step…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

If you have a spiritual or religious background, then you’ve most likely heard the “God Will Save Me!” story at some point in time. I was honestly a little surprised though when my partner told me he had never heard of it, which is why I’ve included it at the end of today’s entry.

The story itself is one that is used quite often when people speak about waiting on God for help. In the 12 Steps realm, I’ve heard many who were recovering from an addiction share this parable and explain how it related to them waiting upon God to save them from their disease. Each have consistently said how they somehow overlooked every single time God tried to do just that for them. Not so ironically, I too at times have been far too busy in my own ego, especially during my addiction-laden years, believing God’s help was going to come in a certain way. In doing so, I as well missed out on many of my Higher Power’s attempts at outstretching a helping hand.

This is why I regularly practice on my own spiritual journey nowadays to pay more attention to even the slightest of signs that could be God’s help coming my way. The struggle for me though with this has always been at deciphering when those signs of help are actually coming from God, or when they’re totally coming from something else, such as the darkness in this world trying to screw me up and steer me down the wrong path.

Case in point, I’ve had plenty of times where people heard me share about my health issues and in turn offer me suggestions on doctors to go see, holistic techniques to try, or even given me their own diagnosis of what potential disease or illnesses I may have. All too frequently when this has happened, I’ve only been filled with more doubt and more fear and never had much success, if any at all, when pursuing their help.

But, there have also been a bunch of examples where people gave me some suggestions that immediately led to a calming effect within me. A good example of this was when a holistic practitioner advised me once to go read a book titled “The Afterlife of Billy Fingers”. For some reason, that title sat within me for days and weeks and I kept getting a calming reassurance inside that I really needed to read it. When I finally did download a copy, the book gave me exactly that. Every time I read a chapter I felt more connected to God and completely at peace.

Ultimately, I’m convinced that when God is trying to get my attention and offer me help in some way, shape, or form, that when it comes, it’s usually with that reassuring feeling and often presented to me in several different ways. But when it’s arising from something other than God, I normally will feel greater fear, panic, doubt, worry, and the like instead.

So while I do love this “God Will Save Me!” story that I’ve attached below a lot, I fully believe these days that not everyone’s help being offered is always coming from my Higher Power. I think the key to figuring out whether it is or isn’t, is to get in touch with how I feel anytime that help is presented. When it’s not arising from God, it generally seems to be something that only causes me greater aggravation and unrest in life. But when it is originating from my Higher Power, it tends to come my way more than once bringing me greater peace and comfort each time it does. And thankfully this continues to prove true for, especially as of late…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

GOD WILL SAVE ME!

A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately.

A faithful Christian man heard the warning and decided to stay, saying to himself, “I will trust God and if I am in danger, then God will send a divine miracle to save me.”

The neighbors came by his house and said to him, “We’re leaving and there is room for you in our car, please come with us!” But the man declined. “I have faith that God will save me.”

As the man stood on his porch watching the water rise up the steps, a man in a canoe paddled by and called to him, “Hurry and come into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!” But the man again said, “No thanks, God will save me.”

The floodwaters rose higher pouring water into his living room and the man had to retreat to the second floor. A police motorboat came by and saw him at the window. “We will come up and rescue you!” they shouted. But the man refused, waving them off saying, “Use your time to save someone else! I have faith that God will save me!”

The flood waters rose higher and higher and the man had to climb up to his rooftop.

A helicopter spotted him and dropped a rope ladder. A rescue officer came down the ladder and pleaded with the man, “Grab my hand and I will pull you up!” But the man STILL refused, folding his arms tightly to his body. “No thank you! God will save me!”

Shortly after, the house broke up and the floodwaters swept the man away and he drowned.

When in Heaven, the man stood before God and asked, “I put all of my faith in You. Why didn’t You come and save me?”

And God said, “Son, I sent you a warning. I sent you a car. I sent you a canoe. I sent you a motorboat. I sent you a helicopter. What more were you looking for?”