Sheilaclapkin's Blog;

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First of all, you ask, what is a Johnny Come Lately Flower Child? In the late sixties in the San Francisco area of Haight-Ashbury, the epicenter of the Hippie culture, young people gathered and wore flowers or floral decorations symbolic of a movement gathering belonging to peace and love. Also, flower children were associated with “flower power” politics. Somewhere in the mix you had hippies, love beads, Summer of Love, a counterculture of the 1960’s, and earlier movements can be attributed to beatniks. Closer to what I may have been.  But an answer to a Johnny Come Lately like me is one who is too old in age, but held fast to the philosophies, poetry, writers and music of the times.

The answer stuns me. It makes me think about all of the philosophies floating around in those days. I was married with five children, a perfect husband who lent himself to the task and had a good wholesome job. This was the end of the 60’s to mid 70’s and there were now people who lived for psychedelic hallucinations, drug use, just flower trippers who backed into the trendy images of the youth culture. I was too young to be out of it and too old to be in it.  What is it? What was it? It was and still is a product of thought and sharing ideas of the big purple book “Be Here Now.” I personally never went past the social science stage, but enjoyed some of the relationships that came during the process. Drug use was prevalent, but we knew not to get into that stage, the psychedelic stage. We had responsibilities we cherished.

I remember a fellow I heretofore trusted for many years who asked me why I would not partake of the lines he had crafted.  I told him I didn’t want to and he was not satisfied with that answer. He stuck a finger full of cocaine in my mouth. Just a tiny bit made me realize that this would be something from which I would not escape whole.  I spit and chocked my way to the realization, NEVER AGAIN. So, I enjoyed the hippie heart, the cultural thoughts and ideas, the music and the dress up without any of the trappings besides as you can see, the look and the Johnny come lately heart.

Why write about this Johnny Come Lately mind set? I have learned more than if I were in a closed set of rules.  I learned how to identify the state of Metamorphosis and emerging as a butterfly.  Why did this matter?  What are the advantages?  At the time of Metamorphosis you experience the total feeling of fulfillment. You can build from there on past knowledge and fill in the rest with new visions. It is just the process it just happens.  It is up to you to realize it and take its value for your own use.

There are no accidents, no miracles.  Always looking for accidences, miracles, well, stop. Things just are. The minute you want power, you will not have it, but the minute you do not want power you will have more than you ever wanted.  How does this work Johnny Come Lately?   Once you understand the possibilities, you will get it. You are pretty much your own helper. Getting into reality is and was a good teacher.

Well then what is reality? Good old Wikipedia states:  “Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined.[1] In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. A still more broad definition includes everything that has existed, exists, or will exist.”

But then, what about thought as a reality?  This is a bit more difficult to define. Do you want your thoughts to turn into your reality? I personally do not because that is the side I want to hide, stop, re-create. Some of those thoughts are such delusions, such figments, and such trash much of the time. My truth mixes with other thoughts and realities. Do you notice yours mix, too?

There was a great surge towards compassion at this Johnny Come Lately stage. Make a difference. Help someone or some ideology. This compassion movement still exists in the Hippie Flower child movement today in all of us who were there, in thought and actions, who are there, who want to be there in different costumes, and disguises of the present day.  We can recognize one another by listening and hearing the philosophy of those days gone by come out in so many aspects of our lives and thought. If you were not there and just realizing the truths of this movement, join us, we will teach you as much as we know and as much as we can remember. You will teach us your reality and a sharing and mixing of truths, as we know them will create and welcome a new whole existence. The seed was planted long enough ago to have lost the spirit, but it never died. It is still on a bridge waiting for us to join one again, to remember our union or to begin anew.

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