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Return to “The Summer of Love”

By August 15, 2013August 8th, 2016Balance, Healthy Living, Inspiration

Happiness SprinklingIt’s unusual when a two-and-a-half-day weekend changes your life. Whenever thousands of positive energy people gather together, it’s unpredictable what might happen. My trip to the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon certainly gave the word “celebrate” a rich new meaning. It was an incredible happiness sprinkling of love, peace and community. Hectic and overwhelming at times, and joyful and inspiring at others. It stirred memories of another place in an earlier time.

Since releasing my book, Confessions of a Middle-Aged Hippie, I’ve been sharing with people that we are all hippies. It makes perfect sense to me, yet people often turn up their nose and say emphatically, “I’m not a hippie.” I smile. My hippie is less about a lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock & roll, and more about hippie as the core values of peace, love and community. It occured to me, that the people who are attracted to WDS, truly represent the hippies of this generation.

What Does WDS Stand For?

Living the credo of “community, adventure and service” this generation of free spirits is carrying forward the values the hippies birthed back in the 60s. Hippies were considered counterculture, revolutionaries who stood for peace, love and changing the world for the better. Radical for the time.

This group stands for living remarkable lives in a conventional life and being of service, as they lovingly plot their world changing. Hippies were known to live alternative lifestyles and that’s what struck me most while in Portland—thousands of people living and thriving in alternative lifestyles. Changing the definition of what is possible in our constantly evolving world.

Hippie Values

Hippies stood for the very values that are currently part of our popular cultural conversations. Do you live from a place of gratitude, include music and art in your life, and see how being in community and of service, are fulfilling why we all are here? You are a hippie.

Is meditation, yoga and inner transformational work part of your life? You are a hippie. Are you a seeker, exploring spirituality and contributing to being a co-creator for a conscious planet? You are a hippie. Or maybe you value organic living and sustainability and are compassionate, showing reverence for all living creatures. You are a hippie. At the core of who we are as human beings—we are all hippies.

Return to the Summer of Love

MarchFourthReflecting a little bit more, I began to see that this incredible weekend was a mini return to the “Summer of Love”. The 1967 convergence of 100,000 + people in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, is credited for having initiated a major cultural and political shift in the world. It was a revolutionary time. The energy and excitement of the era translated to the world in many ways, most memorably, through the music of the times.

This weekend was alive with a smorgasbord of music and collective group energy, as we took over the zoo for our love-in opening party. Seriously. We took over a zoo! 2,800 of us sitting in the open amphitheater Woodstock-style, spread out on the grass, dancing, talking and connecting. MarchFourth, a colorful marching band whose outfits are a throwback to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band attire, entertained us. Talk about a joyful celebration!

Music, Art, Community and Love

We lived sharing music and art when coming together in community, back in the 60s. Today, we have the power to spread both our individual and group messages to millions of people worldwide in a matter of seconds via technology. And we do.

The interesting parallels between the 60s and now are actually written in the heavens. Back in the mid-60s, Uranus (planet of revolution, rebellion and sudden change) was conjunct Pluto (planet of transformation, rebirth and breaking with tradition), igniting an inescapable time-release charge of radical transformation in culture and individuals.

The human potential for the enlightenment of “all people” had been reserved for an occasional saint or guru, before this time. Back then, this taste of expanded consciousness germinated a cultural seed, giving birth to a new kind of individual. Suddenly it became an expansive possibility for everyone, and hippies were the first to get that. Right on.

Astrology Shows Us Why Now

In my understanding of astrology, what happened during the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in the 60s, would manifest globally as soon as these two planets reached their first square. If you haven’t heard, we just came out of a 3-year period, (2012 to 2015), where we experienced seven exact squares of Uranus and Pluto! And we are still feeling the effects of it now.

We are living in supercharged times of revolutionary and sudden changes at the core level of both individuals and institutions. You don’t have to look too far to see where this is manifesting on the planet now. Where have you felt this in your own life?

Where Have All the Hippies Gone?

People often wonder where all the hippies have gone. They became lawyers who sued for protecting air and water quality and for damages from chemical pollution. They began changing the world by starting companies that produced products that were Earth-friendly, ecologically-sound, technologically advanced and socially conscious.

Portland is a progressive hub of this energy. It’s alive and flourishing there, spreading out into the world at gatherings like the World Domination Summit. Recently we witnessed this in the amazing grass roots following that aligned with Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Presidential primaries. I believe Bernie Sanders and the millions of people he attracted embody the hippie values and see the need for radical change in all areas of society. His movement calls for a political revolution. 

An Inspiring Example

Bob MooreNow 87-year-old Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill, was an ageless example of what the hippie generation stood for.  His credo, “Put people before profit. Share with those who helped you build it.”, shows his deep understanding of the value of working in community. This consciousness allowed this visionary Aquarian to give the company he had started in his 60’s to his employees. He handed it over to them on his 81st birthday. Cool.

For those who lived in the 60s and were part of this shift in consciousness, it’s incredible to see what was known to a relative few worldwide back then, still alive and part of the big earth shifts happening now. Consciousness and spirituality are embraced as part of who we are. Yoga is practiced by millions of men and women everywhere daily. Meditation is encouraged for inner peace. The only place world peace can begin.

Summer Celebration

Creativity is the new keyword in education, business and life. Connection and person-to-person sharing are still alive and vibrant, considering our technological world is often credited with creating isolation. Many of today’s thought leaders believe that creatives will rule the future. These are all values that the original Summer of Love celebration birthed.

What a memorable way to enjoy the summer, coming together in powerful like-minded communities. This is the real reason people come to Portland each summer. A chance to meet face-to-face with amazing people they’re anxious to connect with. It’s a strong and growing community. Truly a summer of love for people of all ages, ethnicities and walks of life. A love-in, a peace-in and a groovy way to spend a few days in absolutely, awesomely inspiring company. May the spirit of the Summer of Love infuse the way you live your life every day. Power to the people. Peace-Out!

Love and Health Are Hippie Values

Living a healthy life is a key hippie value. The hippie era birthed the alternative health movement, after all. As a health and vitality consultant, I invite you to show yourself some love and self-care and message me for your complimentary wellness consultation. Curious to find out how healthy you are now? Start with the USANA True Health Assessment. It offers a 3-part report with heredity, lifestyle and nutrition suggestions you can implement immediately. Here’s to love and health in all areas of our lives! Look forward to talking with you soon…

Images of MarchFourth and Bob Moore courtesy of Armosa Studios

Beverley Golden

Beverley Golden is a writer, storyteller, peacenik and health & vitality consultant, who loves testing unconventional ways to shift paradigms in the playing fields of health and wellness, storytelling and creativity as a path to world peace. Her passion is turning the “impossible” into the possible, using her own experiences with a lifetime of health issues, to inspire and support others to live their life to the fullest. You're invited to a Complimentary Health Consultation, starting with the True Health Assessment that offers a customized personalized snapshot of how healthy you are in the areas of lifestyle, heredity and nutrition. Contact me to get started!

38 Comments

  • Joan Potter says:

    Beverley – What a “feel-great” post! I used to teasingly say that my mother was the oldest hippie on earth, and fortunately I inherited her formidable spirit. I really think it was the very best thing she could have endowed to me. It always seemed goofy though – even when it wasn’t popular, she would say things like “Let’s make a cradle for humanity.” She died 4 years ago, but her very last Facebook post that she wrote the day before she died read: “Light, peace, and love to all.” God bless you for realizing the value of that very spirit.

    • Thanks so much, Joan! Your mother sounds like my kind of “hippie” and how wonderful to have that kind of influence in your life! Hope my daughter says the same about me. It sounds like even though you found some of her sayings to be ‘goofy’, that she was right on in her understanding and was ahead of her time. I absolutely love her last Facebook post. How beautiful and to me it says how she really embodied the key hippie values which I believe we all have at our core. Not everyone lives it though. Thank you so much for sharing some of your mother with us. Her and I would have definitely gotten along and had much to talk about!

  • What great energy you must have absorbed experiencing this! It sounds like a truly transformative event, and you can feel the vibe coming through in your writing!

    • Thanks so much for seeing the energy of WDS from my post, Jennifer. Yes, it is a high-energy, inspiring way to meet and be among like-minded people! Glad it showed through in my writing too!

  • Hi Beverley 🙂

    Great post! I would say YES I guess I am a hippie after reading and realizing that indeed I really am lol 🙂 That must be so much fun to connect with others on such a spiritual and emotional level and to meet so many fascinating people 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂

    • Hi Joan! Yay, to seeing how many of the hippie values you embody in your life. 🙂 It is a lot of fun to connect with all ages of like-minded people at a high-energy event like WDS. Some of the people I met in my first year, I am still friends with. So many incredible people from around the world are drawn to the weekend event! 🙂

  • Kimberly says:

    I’m a fan of Chris Gillebeau and AONC… Always wanted to attend that! How fun…

    • Chris is amazing, Kimberly. I’ve been following him and AONC for many years now. You’d love WDS! It really is both fun and also inspiring to connect with so many like-minded and creative people.

  • Wow.. what a full weekend of love and celebration. It kind of reminds me of being at a conference or something like a motivational MLM summit.. where it’s all about helping each other grow and to motivate and empower each other. great experience Bev

    • What’s really unique about WDS, is that everyone might be doing different things in the world, however, everyone has similar values they are operating from, Kristen. In this case, it is about ‘adventure, community and service’. Definitely a trio so many of us are wanting to do in our own lives. It is great fun, lots of love and celebration and lots of new friends made from all over the world! Glad you could resonate with it too!

  • Joyce Hansen says:

    It’s wonderful to have summer of love come back around again! We all thought it would last but dramatic change takes time. The principles still hold but this time, we have social media and we can reach a worldwide audience. So happy you have chronicled this incredible time, and you are here to witness how it has evolved.

    • Thanks for your thoughts on the summer of love and how we are mirroring it today, Joyce. Yes, it definitely takes time (100 years total), for the values that were birthed in the 60s to come to fruition. We are half way there and with my rose-colored glass view of the world, I believe we will get there. It’s wonderful to see how the seeds that were birthed are blooming today and into the future.

  • Thanks for sharing your perspective of a “hippe” generation. As a teenage of the 80’s we have things with being a free spirit, art and such as well. In all, we are looking for similar things. Freedom, Spirit, Creative ways to express one’s self. Which is really a connection to heart and soul. xoxo

    • What you describe truly is what the hippie generation stood for, Natasha. A connection to the heart and soul and expressing that through love, peace, art, music and community! We are still seeking those same qualities today. I believe we are getting closer too! xo

  • Isn’t it wonderful that we are returning to our core hippie values, Beverley? It’s what the world really needs right now. I could feel the positive energy in your post. Here’s to the age of Aquarius!

    • Thanks so much, Vatsala! Glad you could feel that the core hippie values are what our world needs so desperately today! Yes, WDS is a place of positive energy and world changing visionaries. What the world needs now as we head into the Age of Aquarius!

  • Andrea says:

    I love the way you structured this post: the update on WDS, the comparison to the summer of love… and then *boom* astrology. I especially enjoyed the “re-cap” of all the things we now take for granted (healthy eating, yoga, etc) that were “counter-culture” back in the day. Such a pleasure to be getting to know you… at least virtually. Peace. -a-

    • Thanks for sharing your takeaways from this piece, Andrea! I love the points that popped for you and that you saw the correlations that I saw while both experiencing it and then writing about it. Yes, it’s amazing to think that so much of what is part of who we are today, was considered counter-culture back in the 60s. A definite birthing time which is starting to grow today! Appreciate the opportunity to get to know you as well. One of the benefits or positive aspects of technology. Peace…

  • Oh yes. I was not in attendance at the summer of love, and I was at Woodstock. Sadly I don’t think we are all hippies, because I have some uber-resistant folks in my life. I’ll say it like this: We all have the potential to be loving, and healing, and generous, bringing that healing and gamechanging energy wherever we go. Part of my job in this life, I think, is to encourage that opening in everyone I meet.

    Blessed be, hippie sister!

    Sharing this now…

    • Wow, Woodstock must have been quite a memorable experience, Sue! I can’t imagine the energy of that huge number of people who attended. I think at the core of who we are as human beings, we do carry the hippie values. Yes, many people are resistant to live those values and yes, we definitely need to find the loving and peaceful human values to transform and heal the world. I love hearing that your ‘job’ in this lifetime, is to encourage that opening to love and peace in the people you meet. Beautiful mission… thanks hippie sister!

  • I can hear your excitement and it sounds as though that was a wonderful weekend Beverley. I can certainly understand how the positive energy emitted by the like-minded people, music and art are so appealing.

    • Yes, Rachel, the energy of this dynamic group of people who come from all over the world to meet at WDS, really is quite infectious…in a good way! It is high positivity, so surrounding ourselves with this kind of energy really gives it a sense of belonging and finding your tribe. The music, art and love is wonderful too!

  • Latrelle says:

    I just love this, Beverley. Thank you for sharing the astrological occurrences. The last few years have truly been transformative years for me – overwhelm, serious mental and physical health issues to heal. I missed a lot of that information – ha!

    I can see this change in my own life. Ironically, this time has synched up with perimenopause. Therefore, there is no holding back – so many changes that still need to be addressed. Getting back to proper diet, setting boundaries – simply refusing to accept anything less than what is light and right.

    I was born in 1969 and in the mid 80s I found a great peace, studying the social and spiritual revolution of the 60s. It created a great foundation for stepping out into life, that still supports me to this day.

    Thank you for sharing your experience. So wonderful <3

    • Thanks so much for sharing about your journey, Latrelle. I really feel how many twist and turns life has take for you and at the age you are now, I understand why you are experiencing what you are experiencing too. It sounds like you have a very clear picture of what you need to do to take the next step in your own health and wellbeing.

      I loved reading how studying the social and spiritual revolution of the 60s, became a way to discover inner peace for yourself. Yes, knowing the hippie values that were birthed back then, really is a foundation for who we are as human beings. Appreciate you sharing all of this with us! 🙂

  • Reba Linker says:

    You put this so well: “The human potential for the enlightenment of “all people” had been reserved for an occasional saint or guru, before this time. Back then, this taste of expanded consciousness germinated a cultural seed, giving birth to a new kind of individual. Suddenly it became an expansive possibility for everyone…” It is so apparent to me, as I live and work in the ‘self-help’ community and I see just masses of people running towards their own enlightenment, shedding years and lifetimes of limiting beliefs as they run. Maybe it is a race between ‘us’ and those who wish to use (abuse) the planet for their own ends. Paradoxically, it is a race we can win only by slowing down! Kudos on a great post and a great contribution to this grand conversation edging us all in the right (hippie!) direction! Oh! And that was quite a party – I guess I gotta get out more! xo

    • This heightened awareness you mention, Reba, really was birthed during this period in our history. It really is written in the heavens, yet so many want to dismiss the powerful seeds of change that were planted back then. Yes, it was seen in popular culture, in the music and the art. I see it everywhere as well! It is amazing how what was considered counterculture and revolutionary back then, is now part of our cultural conversations now. It is us + us +us and yes, if we want change, we have to slow down and actually be agents of change, not waiting for others to do it for us. So happy you enjoyed this post, and you always seem to get my message! Which I deeply appreciate. Yes, WDS is quite a gathering of a diverse group of people who all have community, adventure and service on their minds! xo

  • You can feel the energy, positive feelings, love and desire for peace at just about any folk concert. My Gemini birthday usually comes out on the weekend of the Pete Seeger concert. I almost never missed a year starting in my 20’s. Now that is a long time and on my 65th birthday I made a community invitation to Landmark graduates to join me. Many did and they had never been to this concert. It rain but it didn’t matter. And many have made it an annual event.

    • That’s a great point about the energy and peaceful going to a folk concert, Roslyn. After all, the folk scene really did come out of the hippie era. I love hearing about the Pete Seeger concert aligning with your birthday and how you’ve kept up the tradition of going for so many years. You’re community building passion also shows in bringing your Landmark friends with you to have their own personal experience. Nice to know that the desire for peace and the energy of love and positivity still is alive like this too. I haven’t been to a folk concert in many, many years. It brought back a lot of memories of the 60s and 70s for me! Thanks!

  • Where have all the hippies gone? I’m here! 😉 While our exteriors may have changed, our internal drivers are much the same as they were back in the ’60s and ’70s. Rock on with your bad self!

    • Thanks for adding that we’re here, we’re here! Yes, we hippies are still alive and well and changing the world, Jackie! We might look different, but inside…same ideals and motivations are what are driving us. 🙂

  • Karen Grosz says:

    Peace, love and community are definitely my values, my husband always tells me I am a liberal in conservative clothing. I like hippie better. I haven’t been to Portland for a while since I moved to the northen plains, but it is a place of progressive attitudes and I can see how Bernie Sanders movement would appeal to that city.

    • From what I know of you, I do think you embody the hippie values, regardless of your conservative clothing, Karen. 🙂 For those who have been to Portland, I think you really get how progressive and change oriented the culture is. Yes, this is a place where the ideas and call for change that Bernie Sanders stands for, truly align with the people who live there.

  • Tamuria says:

    The WDS sounds like an amazing experience, full of positive energy, which I could feel in this post. I love the idea of changing the definition of what is possible.

    • Thanks so much Tami! Yes, WDS is an amazing gathering of positive like-hearted people who really do want to change the world! I always love the idea of changing the definition of what is supposed to be possible, too! 🙂

  • I admit it, I am a hippie. I grew up with two parents who were hippies as well. So I guess it was ingrained in me from birth.

    I’ve never been to Oregon. I will need to visit there soon. Thanks for sharing.

    • From all you’ve written about your parents and your upbringing, Sabrina, I do believe you are a hippie too! It sounds like the value system really has become a part of who you are. Oregon is a fabulous state. Although I’ve only been to Portland, I know there are many places to visit there. You can really feel the energy of the movement everywhere!

  • Oh, wow, the WDS sounded fabulous, Beverley! What an incredible experience. And I love your interpretation of the planetary influences on the ’60s. Such a powerful time.
    Can we get to the age of Aquarius yet? 🙂

    • You’d probably love the energy of WDS, Susan! Such an eclectic, creative and caring group of people. The planetary influences are really being felt now and as far as the age of Aquarius…we are getting closer! 🙂