Grateful Heart Monday

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday, where each week begins with a piece of gratitude from my life, which for today is for a guy named Ryan, who simply was a good Samaritan during a time of great need.

I truly love the story of the Good Samaritan that Christ talks about in the Gospel of Luke. If somehow you don’t know it, it’s about a traveler who gets stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside a road. First a priest and then a Levite walk by, both totally avoiding helping the man whatsoever. But one eventually does help, a Samaritan, who ends up providing the traveler with first aid, shelter, as well as some money for any expenses incurred, such as food or water.

In today’s day and age, being a good Samaritan has become synonymous with anyone who goes out of their way to do a good deed, who also expects nothing in return. Occasionally, I come across stories of people who do this very thing, that might not even see it as being a good Samaritan, as was the case of Ryan.

On an evening very recently, Ryan was heading on a heavily travelled highway home when a massive traffic accident abruptly took place just in front of him. During my years of addictive past, whenever I’d encounter moments like this, I sadly would quickly become that priest or Levite by driving away as fast as I could, not wanting to burden myself. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case for Ryan though, as he immediately stopped and made sure that all oncoming traffic on the highway avoided making the accident scene grow even worse.

Once he got the highway safe and secure from all oncoming vehicles, Ryan then offered to help the police when they arrived by going from car to car to check if everyone was ok, as a good number of vehicles had been involved in the accident. When he came upon the last vehicle, he found a young boy who was frantically screaming out for his father. After initially providing the boy some much-needed words of reassurance, he asked him to stay put while he walked around the vehicle. As he walked around the car, he soon found the body of his father lying motionless in the middle of the highway. Desperately checking for a pulse and finding none, Ryan swiftly returned to the boy and sheltered him from seeing the terrible sight, and in turn continued to offer words of reassurance and unconditional love until more help arrived.

While the story is tragic in of itself, it is the actions of Ryan that I felt truly warranted being written about for this week’s Grateful Heart Monday. Because if there ever was a good example of a Good Samaritan, it’s most definitely in the actions that Ryan demonstrated that fateful evening. I honestly would like to believe nowadays that I would have done the same thing, if I had been in Ryan’s shoes that evening, but I’m extremely grateful to see the Spirit of Christ showed up in Ryan in a true moment of need in this world.

So often, many of us have been that priest or Levite and walked the other way when we could have been of assistance to one of God’s children in serious need, yet thankfully there are some of us who are moved to become that Good Samaritan, people just like Ryan, good people who deserve a lot of praise and plenty to be grateful for…

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

Thought For The Day

I decided for today to only have one quote, because I want to place total emphasis on it, as it’s something I know will help reverse a long-standing shortcoming of mine…

“The one person I am with forever is me. My relationship with myself is eternal, so I choose to be my own best friend. I choose to love and accept myself as I would to a beloved person in my life. I saturate all the cells in my body with love, and they become vibrantly healthy. I relate with love to all of life.” (Louise Hay)

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

Seeing A Character Defect Far More Clearly, When It Comes To Making Friends…

For a few weeks in a row back in February, I had this new weekly lunch thing going on with someone that had similar spiritual interests as I, until they suddenly cancelled our fourth gathering with no explanation as to why, just as I was walking out the door to go meet them. They haven’t contacted me since and my attempt to reach out to them to reschedule never got returned either, leaving me totally frustrated and sad.

Ever since, I’ve wasted countless energies trying to figure out what went wrong. I wondered if I said something or did something that screwed it all up. I questioned if I crossed some boundary without realizing it. I speculated that they mistook my words somehow like many people often have with me. I even assumed I was probably just too intense like I’m frequently told. Basically, I plagued myself with many self-deprecating thoughts.

It’s been rather difficult for me when it comes to making lasting healthy friendships. Something I’ve learned along the way is that I often look in unhealthy places, places where I have very little in common, or places that were intended for only a short moment of my life. In this case, I believe it was the latter, as I owed this person an amends from years ago and wanted to make good on it, yet also hoped I could make a friendship out of it as well, because they were a Christian and gay, two things that I often find are hard to come by on my spiritual journey.

During our first gathering, I promptly made my amends, which was graciously accepted. The air was finally cleared leaving us to enjoy a wonderful 2-hour long conversation about God and spirituality. When I asked this person at the end of our time together how they felt about me being a friend, which I see now was self-seeking, I was surprised that they were open to meeting up again the following week.

Our next gathering didn’t feel quite as connecting though, as I noticed they were less interested in getting to know anything about my life. Yet, I still asked if they wanted to meet up again the following week when our time came to an end that day. I was surprised to hear they did and when the next gathering arrived, I spent more time watching them doodle on napkins, look at their phone, and listen to the music in the restaurant than engage me in any real conversation. I even attempted to ask for a change of venue, thinking a coffee shop might help stimulate a better connection, but they were quite content to stay right there. Honestly, a person with a healthy self-esteem would have never asked to get together again, but I allowed this character flaw of mine to do so again, which is where this story ends with me receiving that brief text message just shy of our next scheduled time to meet up and no contact from them ever since.

Ironically, as I sit here and type these words, I realize that the Universe probably only ever intended for me to meet with this person once, solely to make my amends. Unfortunately, this shortcoming of mine that deals with making friendships often causes me to be blinded to the actual truth. Looking back, I can see the traits of this character defect far more clearly now, as I was the one putting the majority of energy into it and getting very little in return out of it. Truthfully, I never really had much in common with this person other than our love for Christ and God. Sadly, I’ve done this far too often in life, stemming all the way back to my childhood when I would have been grateful to even have a single friend that liked me and wanted to spend time with me.

So, as I continue to heal and work on this character defect, I’m choosing to make a declaration to the Universe and to myself right now that I’m going to be more open to seeing the truth with those I meet in the future. To not chase after friending those who aren’t going to put in the same amount of work. To not look for friends in unhealthy places. To not make more out of an initial connection than it was ever intended to be. And to be ok with letting the Universe guide the process of bringing healthy friends into my life instead, while in the meantime, being ok spending time with the best friend I could ever have, me…

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