Getting Ready to Be Awakened (and filled with Dove Dark Chocolate)

I'll get to Eckhart Tolle in a minute. For now, my ego would like to say a few words.

(Um, if you are reading Tolle's book or are watching the Oprah web casts, you might find that funny. Or not.)

Anyway, my ego says, "I'd like to say that I've been focusing on world peace and harmony, but I'd be lying--I've been focusing today on how much sugar I can consume before bedtime." This is indeed true. My ego and I are sitting here with the Eckhart book to our left side (on the couch arm, close enough to read if I should care to, far enough away that I don't knock it off, trying not to label it or judge it but just letting it be), thoughts of sugar plums dancing in our heads. My ego says, "hey, you and I should check out Ebay for cheap Xena stuff." This leads to thoughts of wanting a snack. My ego would like a snack and I would like a snack and I bet Eckhart would like a snack....but then me and the ego both stop and think about all the crap I've eaten today and think, "geez, do I really need that last spoonful of sugar?"

Lest you think I'm exaggerating, I'd like to display my consumption of sugary-filled treats for the day. Yes, this is in ADDITION to the three meals I have eaten today.....let's see:
(1) 5:30 AM, one Dove Dark Chocolate (consumed while walking the dogs), followed by the wife making a "buttery braid" with cherry and cheese filling (no cholesterol in that danish-related item), hot and steaming out of the oven, hard to eat while driving a stick shift but possible. Man, was that sinful puppy TASTY! Nothing like the smell of freshly made bakery products in the wee hours of the morning to get you going. Naughty wife! It wasn't chocolate but it was soooo good and was a delightful compliment to my fine Dunkin' Donuts coffee, cream only please.

(2) 8 am, five Dove Dark Chocolates--medicinal purposes, of course--and, one bite-sized Dark Milky Way Mint--for non-medicinal purposes.

(3) 10:30 AM, Two small Paydays, one Dove Dark Chocolate (don't want me to get heart disease, do you?) and ten dark Hershey kisses.

(4) 2:30 pm, another Payday and five more dark Hershey kisses. (I don't know what's up with the Paydays--I must be thinking that a serving of nuts per day is very beneficial for heart health.)

(5) 5:30 pm, another delightful piece of that artery-clogging homemade danish for the ending of the perfect dinner (grilled soy cheese on Ezekiel bread and featuring "Smart Balance" buttery spread--which does not make you smarter, made on the George Foreman Grill, surrounded by a sea of pepper chips and that god-forsaken danish).

Um, and I was wondering why I haven't been losing any weight despite all my exercise???!!!

My ego made me do it.

Ha ha.

It will come to me and my ego a little later in this segment that my life's purpose is to eat chocolate. Now, THAT'S a life purpose I can awaken to!

Back to my new friend, ego-less Eckhart Tolle.

If you are an Oprah fan or if you've gone to a bookstore that sells Oprah's book club books (and who doesn't sell those hot tickets these days?), I'm thinking you've heard something about Oprah and the "A New Awakening" Worldwide Web Event. (If you haven't, promise me you'll go to www2.oprah.com later and learn more about this 10 week web event.)

Eckhart Tolle is an author and spiritual leader/teacher/guru/messenger. Those are my descriptors--not his. He doesn't have descriptors. He just is. This is his photo from his website. I really like this guy as he reminds me of a combination of an elf and my cousin "Grand Canyon Black Toes."

When I hear his last name, I think of "mole mole" (pronounced MOLE-AY, MOLE-AY), which is what the wife and I say every time we eat in an authentic Mexican restaurant and really doesn't sound like his name but it's what I think. I also think of Tollhouse cookies, but that's just because I love warm Tollhouse cookies and I'm a sugar junkie and not because it has anything to do with him.

So, Oprah and Eckhart are doing this ten week on-line learning experience... Monday nights, 8 PM CST, 90 minutes, literally world-wide participation. (Is the Web great or what?) Since I'm all about a new earth and a new me and an awakening of any kind (especially if it involves home-made bakery products to awaken with), I have decided to take this "ride" with Oprah and her closest seven Zillion friends.

How could me and my ego say "no" to Oprah?

I'll leave it up to you to decide anything about the new earth or your own awakening. My ego and I just want to say we really, really like this guy. He's talking and we're enjoying him and his delicate features and his wonderful accent and his gentle demeanor and we're thinking how we'd love to meet this guy and I'm telling the wife to look at the computer screen, asking her, "Don't you think he looks like Cousin Black Toes without his glasses?" Although this is heavy stuff, it is delightful and possible coming from him. Oprah is just the vehicle (no offense meant to you, Oprah--without you, we don't have Tolle podcasting around the universe). You listen & watch the web cast, you follow along in your book, you work in your workbook on line. Ten weeks, free. FREE!

There are so many things to ponder when this little elf guys speaks. I swear to you I caught myself tilting my head to one side and smiling while considering what he had to say. It was very delightful, despite the headiness of it all and despite how late at night 9 pm is for me.

I can stay awake a little later on Monday nights to learn my life's purpose, right? Right.

Page 14 reassuringly states, "To recognize one's insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity...." Well, I know me and the ego are insane (as well as drunk with sugar), so I think this means we are ahead of the game.

I make light of all this but I really do get what he's saying and what Oprah's doing and how the world really, really needs to get this RIGHT NOW. We are in a very bad way right now and boy, is Mr. Tolle right on it, ego-less or not. I will read the book and watch the web casts (yes, with Dove Dark Chocolate in hand) and take part in this Oprah-fied happening. It's easy to watch and listen--the hard part is doing the work. I'm not sure I am ready to do the work but I already put a few tenets to the test today and it seemed to ring true. Until I figure it out, though, I'm here with this ego and an affinity for massive amounts of chocolate and an ego-filled blog of naming, labeling and judging.

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, so.....

..........I think I'll keep on babbling and eating chocolate until I find my life purpose and a new earth.....