20 ... Gabriel Morrishow I chose to deal with them. In listening to these aspects of my-
self, I found that they revealed a depth of learning and understand-
ing that would have been inaccessible through any book or teacher;
although I still had a great deal of respect for all I’d learned, spiritual
and otherwise, from the experience of others. It seemed that there
was a balance to be found somewhere between listening to the wis-
dom of others and listening to the inherent wisdom of one’s own
soul. I sought to find that important, often elusive balance between
self and other—between my own individual consciousness, and the
collective consciousness of the universe.
As that summer turned to fall, I found a steady job delivering bread
around town for a local bakery. I also packed up my tent from my
friend’s lawn and moved into an alternative cooperative house down
the street from the University of Oregon campus. I had always been
interested in communal living; and besides, the rent was cheap.
I remember the first person I noticed as I was moving into the
Co-op. It was a breezy day, and the fall leaves were fluttering to the
ground. He was playing guitar under a tree just across the street from
the large house, singing in a guttural but soulful voice. He looked at
first like your typical hippie vagrant, but at second glance, maybe
more like a magician. He was extremely tall and thin, had long, scrag-
gly dark hair, a thick beard that masked half his face like a veil, dark
eyes that seemed to look out from the depths of a cave, and a long,
pointed nose. His name, I found out later, was Jeffrey. His presence
had a certain deep, rooted power that at the time I couldn’t quite
grasp. He was strange and intense, and I left it at that as I busied my-
self with moving into my new home.
I had a single room on the top floor of the old three-story building,
with just enough space to create a cozy living place with my few
belongings. I was grateful to finally have my own room, after spend-
ing the previous two months in a cramped tent on my friend’s lawn.
I was also looking forward to living with a large group of new and
interesting people.