Sharla Dawn Gorder

YOUser Manual

Sharla Dawn

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April 4, 2018

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What if your husband came with a “user manual”? Or your boss? Or even your new friend at the club? What if you, yourself, came equipped with a little booklet of instructions designed to help others understand how you best function, what might cause you to short circuit, and, perhaps most importantly, what helps facilitate enjoyable or helpful “usage” of you (yousage, ha!) in the context of important relationships in your life?

What if?

Would your user manual resemble the tome issued with the 1975 Betamax video recorder, about 9000 pages—translated into every language but Pig-Latin? Or would your instructions fit neatly on a label—machine wash, drip dry? Or maybe it would be something in between?

For weeks I’ve been pondering the idea of a “relationship user manual” or “friendship user manual,” based on a business article that my husband shared with me last month about a guy named Jay Desai. He is the young CEO of health technology startup, PatientPing. Continue Reading

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Hard Things

Sharla Dawn

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March 7, 2018

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Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
But we can choose to live in joy.
Joseph Campbell

Easier said than done—as is most good advice.

(Spoiler alert: The “Godwink” post script to this story is freaky.)

The world feels scary right now—rife with sorrows, cluttered with angry voices, drained of joy. Children die as they crouch beneath their desks clutching makeshift shields by LL Bean and JanSport—flimsy backpacks no match for bullets. Politicians and pundits alienate us from each other and from our own true selves as though it is their job to “disunite” this nation (so ironically named for the opposite—the United States). Beloved icons grow old and die—or worse, ignore the first part, and go ahead and die young without even consulting me. The hard stuff just keeps on happening. I’m reluctant to turn on the TV. Social media is often worse. The radio is too noisy no matter what the volume. And silence screams loudest of all when anxiety and fear turn my brain into a bad neighborhood after dark. Continue Reading

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Sucking Marrow

Sharla Dawn

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February 7, 2018

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I’ve begun writing a column for the Island Times Newspaper inspired by my photos of Pensacola Beach at dawn. I’ve gone ‘round and ‘round in my head about what to call it: Sharla Dawn at Dawn, seems a little egotistical. Crayon Dawn requires too much explanation. Beach Musings—a play on Pat Conroy’s 1995 title, Beach Music—is a little abstruse (as is the word “abstruse”), and Sucking Marrow, had my editor rethinking her decision to hire me. (Ha! Not really.)

But, of course, that one was my fave.

Then, on second thought, I wasn’t sure I really wanted the work “suck” to be associated with my writing any more often than absolutely necessary. Continue Reading

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Walls and Doors

Sharla Dawn

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January 3, 2018

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Ever since the world’s existed

There’s one thing that is certain

There are those who build walls

And those who open doors…

Jackson Browne, Walls and Doors

I am drawn to these lyrics. I can’t stop thinking about them. I play this great Jackson Browne song during the cool-down/stretch portion of my exercise classes, and even though I’ve heard it dozens of times, it re-inspires me every single time.

Which am I, y’all? A wall builder, or a door opener? Which are you? I would like to be the latter—100 percent of the time. Clearly though, I’m not there yet. However, I will say I have learned that, for me, wall building is a very dangerous occupation. It nearly killed me once. So, you’d think I’d’ve learned to put down my trowel and mortar when feeling threatened, and instead open my heart, open a door, connect with another human.

And usually now, I do, because I’ve decided that the desire of my heart is to encourage and understand you, not to hide from you. I cannot do that from behind a wall. Continue Reading

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Broken…Open

Sharla Dawn

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December 6, 2017

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This is what the storms brought—all these broken treasures, delivered right to my bare feet on the beach in front of the house. It was up to me however, to gather them and make something beautiful with them. How did I do?

I’m getting better at it, y’all, so much better since my own great storm. I can work with fragments and shards—pieces with the tops blasted off, shells cracked clean in two, slender slivers bleached white by the sun. I love the ones calcified and gray with age, the ones barely recognizable as seashells, the ones no tourist would touch. Continue Reading

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Writer – Speaker

Buy The Book HERE

YOUser Manual

Hard Things

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
But we can choose to live in joy.
Joseph Campbell

Sucking Marrow

Walls and Doors

Ever since the world’s existed

There’s one thing that is certain

There are those who build walls

And those who open doors…

Jackson Browne, Walls and Doors

Broken…Open

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, But we can choose to live in joy. Joseph Campbell

Ever since the world’s existed

There’s one thing that is certain

There are those who build walls

And those who open doors…

Jackson Browne, Walls and Doors

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
But we can choose to live in joy.
Joseph Campbell