A question for the older and wiser

this is a question to the old hippies

when you were young, and living and free and having all these cosmic revelations and such from drugs, meditation, whatnot, did you ever wonder if you would end up like everyone else, just another wage slave/conformer?

my curiosity is to how you survived all these years, and still stayed hip and true?

peace

 

Well God as you well know I am living as close to the way I dreamed I would be all those 30 something years ago, I had to let go of the high life for a brief period..known as that "time to learn some important lessons by living with someone who will drive me nuts for 15 years".....yes, I still would like to have that talk with you about those years...

And as you also know I was involved in that rat race for awhile, mainly raising those 2 beautiful kids you sent me to share in their lives...

And then you blessed me by bringing back my true love that I lost for all those years and that really did it...we both had always dreamed about getting back to the life we left behind, we took every step we could to go back in that direction and now we are back out here in the woods, doing everything we can to not depend on "the man".

To me...beiing truely "hip" is to be myself and live for myself, do no harm and not get caught up in anyone else's bullshit.
Help when I can, and use my brain to know when to walk away.

Dear God, thank you for all the blessings in my life, and thank you for all the pain, for it was then that I learned the most important lessons of all,

teepi

If I were to really be talking to GOD this is what I would say....and I have.

 

I think that’s a great question. Have I succeeded? Not really – for many years – still trying.

When I was in my twenties, I lived in a small community in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I was living in a school bus. I had running water, electricity and after a while I even had a telephone. This really worked for a while. I had freedom! However I didn’t own the land and eventually we all had to move on.

I had my short-hair-professional period where I lived in NYC. That was a lot of fun too but pretty far away from the dream.

Now I’m a property owner but still not fully living the dream.

I think our true freedom comes from within. Throughout the years I have been practicing meditation. I did it when I was living on the farm- I did it in New York City and I’m still doing it.

We may or may not be able to find the perfect circumstances to live in this lifetime. Even I we do, it will leave us eventually.

The freedom from within is forever.

 

what an insightful question. i don't think that back then a lot of us were thinking about whether we would wind up being conventional. we were all trying too hard to be "unconventional". but at some point you get past that and have to face the realities of life. you have to find a way to live within the framework of society while staying true to yourself. that doesn't necessarily mean living without some of the trappings of society, but for me it does mean that you have to live by the golden rule and treat others the way you would want to be treated. i started out life as an artist and have been one all my life making a living at it since day one. most weeks i work 100 or more hours but they are my hours and i get to claim them when i want. but most importantly i have made and kept lots of friends who have enriched my life in ways that money never ever could. am i like everyone else? yes, probably. in the end we are all just like each other, which truthfully, is what the hippie movement was saying in it's unconventional way.

how have i survived all these years and still stayed true to myself? i couldn't live any other way. it probably helps that i never gave a damn what anyone else ever thought of me. i couldn't follow someone else's dream. i had to follow my own course in life and it hasn't always been easy but it was always my choice. it's something my family doesn't understand to this day and i have given up trying to explain it to them. the only way you get to know all this is by living your life. age and experience DO matter. that's what it's about.


as robert frost once very knowingly said (paraphrasing here):

"..but i took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

deezee

 

Years ago I was afraid that one day I would become just another drone and that my meaningful life would come to an end.

The good news is that it didn't work out that way...the bad news is that I rode the roller coaster to Hell and back for life to remain meaningful....

I once had the opportunity to remain a tenured college prof for the rest of my life. I chose, instead, to chuck the whole thing out the window and pursue what I saw as my Real Destiny.....I figured that, whether I succeeded or failed, I would at least be living and evolving, not dying in a Circle of Routine.

I wound up running the gauntlet of good and bad, from living by the Atlantic to living in a flea-bag hotel, from working as a network administrator for Harvard to teaching in an urban jungle drugs-and-violence Florida high school. And now I am about to relocate to bayou country to slow things down a bit more.....the fun never ends, but at least I feel alive.....

 

Whoa, now that I read yalls responses (Thanks by the way), I hope my post didn't come off as sounding like some angst ridden teenager. I guess I am afraid of losing all the 'wisdom' I've gained, and becoming just another unhappy person. I just hope that I never forget the subtle truths I've realized, like the quote i saw in the above post, "Happiness is not a destination, it is a way of life". I mean, I feel as if I have started a path that is one of personal evolution, and i feel as if it can never end, at least, the evolution part, no matter where I am in life (working corporate job, or 7-11, or homeless).

and of course freedom comes from within, I'm just scared that I'll lose the peace I've found. I mean, I don't want to look back on my life in 20 years and see this period as just some tripped out philosophical growing period. But yea, I was more or less asking about internal freedom, and if yall lost it or hung on to it.

thanks for the replys, wise elders, and i'll just see where life takes me.

 

I've always looked at life as a growing period,mainly because I have a very strong after "life" belief.

I believe we are led to exactly where we are supposed to be at any given moment, and it is up to us to accept what is given to us and use it as we see fit, sometimes the message is ridiculously clear, other times you won't figure it out for a very long time after the fact.

I REALIZE alot of things now about the "15 year period" I mentioned above, but its taken me almost that same amount of time to start "getting it"....

I think we need to be open to the situations, and people and feelings that are sent our way, and pay attention to the messages it all contains.

If you are "lucky" enough to have had a period in your life that just "seemed" right, then it probably is the path you should strive for, we all have free will, every decision we make is concious or subconcious but they both contain conciousness, humans only view time as a line, it is all happening now.....

your soul already knows all and is always sending you something....so listen...

I don't mean to seem preachy but these beliefs have worked very well in my life......

 

jesus man, you threw me into a realization with that 'humans only view time as a line, it's all happening right now'.


thats true man. if its all now, then it would make sense to say that it is all one.

thanks for the small satori.

 

oh yea, im also afraid of losing the love i have found. i hope my heart never goes to sleep again.

 

Seeing as I grew up in a controlling & abusive household and then got married at the age of 17 to a controlling husband I was never "young & living free". What exactly do you mean by that phrase anyways?

 

oh hell i'm still here and on the "road"....


I wanna go home but can't find it...

travelled and lived a 1000 lives

would i change it...?.......No

was it as i thought it would be...?...Nothing remotely like it.

did the hippy in me cause it...?....Yes

too late to change now, and would not if i could....

some people do not choose their path, it seems like it is already laid out before them

 

yea, to post number 11, what i meant by 'free' was more in the sense of not forgetting the things you learned as a youth getting older.

to the second post, thanks for the wisdom.

 

What is the secret to a happy life? How does one acquire
happiness, peace and mental health? The secret lies in
outlooks, attitudes, values and habits of the mind. Live by
the following principles:

- put spiritual things first; nothing is as important as
spiritual things. Seek understanding, wisdom, knowledge,
truth.

- flee argument; seek peace, quiet, harmony

- pursue honesty, sincerity, naturalness, simplicity

- avoid idleness; try to keep busy

- reject intellectual authority; trust no one's mind but
your own; learn to trust and rely on your own sense and
judgment; pursue common sense

- know yourself and be yourself

- love, fear, revere and obey God; let your full allegiance
be to Him; take him and his commandments seriously; love
Goodness; meditate on the value of Goodness and the folly
of Badness; pursue Virtue

- simplify! simplify! simplify! keep life as simple as
possible; pursue "the simple life" and reflect on its
merits; avoid the Sophisticated and the Superficial;
question fads and fashions

- cultivate thrift and frugality

 

astounding, i found myself checking off 'yes' to most of those items you mentioned. thanks

 

...and still be true to your own values....as we age we are supposed to grow and with growth comes the inevitable changing. but we can choose how to grow from the lessons we survive...and thus choose our changing. from the very beginning,put your feet on the path you choose to wander.lighten your load by getting rid of useless baggage early on...(jealousy,anger...etc)it all has no place in a peaceful life. stay true to your path and you will still recognize yourself when you get to the end of it.

 

I have always been how I am.. I was different from the kids in my schools from the begining, I was a seeker of truth, and a natural healer( i drug home every fallen creature there was n fixed it up). My time in school was hell from the sixth grade up. The kids teased me and I got into a lot of fights.. I suppose that's why I got married so young.. I was looking for GOD in the churches.. but I found HIM on Haight St... I'm still the same as I ever was.. I have company and have to cut this short..

Love yas Shameless

 

Lot's of us could go on & on & on...
But you know what? That old coot Shakespeare had a good saying;

"This above all; to thine own self be true"

 

I just wanted to interject that this forum really is getting some of the old feeling back...yay!!! I wasn't coming here as often and I know some of the other OH's weren't here as often but now we're starting to post a bit more and we're seeing some new (and very wise) posters.

Teepi

 

the hippist thing I ever did was to become a wage slave so I could raise my kid.There is nothing unhip about work.Just don't compromise your principles.