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Cherish Your Morning Anguish

December 27, 2019 Ron Gordon 0
Usually a good sleeper, at 64 and after several years of a declining business which is now in a financial death spiral, I’ve developed a depressing habit of waking up at either 1:30 AM or 3:30 AM and beginning the long solitary trek through ‘morning anguish’. Morning anguish is my term for the early hour’s crashing waves of negativity that befalls those whose internal guidance system chooses the self-defeating rituals of worry to sleep, anguish to rest, and suffering to slumber. Why this occurs at random intervals is a partial mystery. The other part of the mystery is not really such a mystery. Maslow, bless his tedious scientific soul, wisely asserted that our needs are organized as a hierarchy, with the physiological needs (food, water, shelter, warmth) at the bottom. As a baby boomer product of the 1950’s, physiological needs were always relatively easy to meet. Jobs were plentiful and confidence blew like the wind. Life was challenging but there was always the unspoken assumption that the physiological material goods (like food) would flow to us by divine right and sanctity of our country of origin. If anything really went seriously bad your Dad would fix it, and if not he could still beat up anyone else’s Dad. Realistically, most of us probably won’t get to Maslow’s ‘self-actualization’ level, esteem happens intermittently on a rare good day, love and belonging is never all that sure, and we’ve all broken the safety rules with impunity in the name of fun. But […]
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A Fly-By Miracle

June 8, 2019 Ron Gordon 0
by Beverly Hutchinson McNeff A Fly-By Miracle The other night, I was downstairs in my kitchen getting a drink of water when I noticed a little fly in the corner of the window over the sink. I normally don’t like flies in my house; my “deal” with them has always been “If you remain outside you live, but inside….well, that’s another story.” Frankly, I was too tired to bother and figured this little fella’s life usually isn’t that long, so I’d give him a reprieve, and I went to bed. The next morning I was surprised to see that same fly in the same corner of the window still attempting his fruitless effort to get out. He was never going to penetrate through the window, and my heart went out to him. I decided I would help him escape by showing him the way to freedom. My windows don’t open upward but to the side, so as I slid the window open and pushed up the screen so the fly could escape, I began gently pushing the fly around the window to the open air. But, that silly fly would not take my help and kept returning to that window corner where no escape was possible. I tried a number of ways to make him see the error of his ways: talking to him, sliding the widow in front of him, pushing him numerous times with my finger, and even telepathically joining with him. No use! He was stuck in […]
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A Very Valuable Eckhart Tolle Interview

October 22, 2018 Ron Gordon 0
The movie below may be the best 40 minute time investment ever. In it Eckhart Tolle’s simple description of ‘presence’ cuts through vast quantities of religion and philosophy to arrive directly to the essential elements. While what he is saying is not different from others like Krishnamurti, Tolle is much easier to understand and relates it to the common world around us. In this video he gives an elegant description of the power of ‘presence’ from someone who is in it, not from a theoretical perspective. Click the second image below to run the movie.