Hippie Induced Creativity

I grew up in the 70's...
In Northern California...
With a hippie family, to whom I loved and love dearly.

My mom's side of the family were more hippie than my dad's side. Since my mom and dad divorced before I was was old enough to remember and my mom had majority custody - I grew up in a peace-loving hippie family community. I'm talking Birkenstocks, tie died clothes, painted up VW bug, macrame and belief that bras and pantyhose were of the devil. I loved it.

When I reflect about my creative life, I have to give credit to my hippie upbringing. My family was tight and no one had a lot of money. But my mom, aunts and uncles all helped each other out. They loved each other without judgement. But that is a topic for another blog.

Back to my creative genealogy...we camped a lot; in the Sierra Mountains, the Cascade Mountains, at the coast and one of the many lakes that speckled the Northern California and Oregon areas. Some of my most favorite memories were from camping as a whole family at Gold Bluff Beach, which was nearly in Oregon. You needed a 4x4 vehicle to traverse the challenging road from the top of the bluff all the way down to sea level...a death defying 30 minute drive on a single lane dirt road. Scary.

Once safely at the bottom of the bluff, the beach stretched out, empty of any human life form, as far as the eye can see. This was my first taste of solitude. Only gigantic Elk slowly meandered through camp at dusk, just as the sun shined its last rays for mainland America to take in. My aunt's always brought amazing creative crafts for us kids to do. One was to make "sand candles." How hippie is that? We dug a shallow hole in the dry sand with our tiny little hands. A cotton wick was tied to a small piece of drift wood and placed in the hole as my aunt held the other end up high. Then my mom poured the melted wax into the hole. It needed a couple of hours to set up before we were allowed to dig the candle out from the embracing sand. It was always a surprise creation - a unique one-of-a-kind candle gently coated with the sparkly golden sands of Gold Bluff Beach. Then at night, we'd light the candles and place them on the picnic table for dinner time. Oh, I want to make a sand candle right now. Memories can be wonderful gifts.

Then we had experiences with tie-dye, which was always fun. We randomly wound rubber bands, saved from daily newspapers, around white tee-shirts or even socks, dipped them in a myriad of dye colors. Rinsed, cut off the rubber bands which exposed the unique one-of-a-kind designer wear. Then I remember macrame - my mom loved macrame. She'd make plant hangers, key chains, wall decor. Name it, she could macrame it. I liked watching, and helping, her. My little sister and I untangled the mass of itchy twine for her and picked pretty beads that were used at determined points.

I came from a family who valued the creative life. And I am ever so grateful for them. And when you don't have much money, you learn ways to be creative with what you have. I have many other memories of my mom's creativity, but I'll stop for now. Maybe reading some of my story has prompted memories of your creativity as a child. How far back can you recall your creative genealogy? How did God enter your world through creativity? I'd like to encourage you to sit down, prayerfully, ask God through prayer, to show you where creativity was active in your young life. Once you see a pattern of His creative essence in your early life, you will be able to see it more abundantly in your adult life. It's there. It just needs to be uncovered. And then lived into once again.

Grace & peace on search of your creative genealogy ~ deAnn

(c) 2008 by deAnn Roe of Vertical Creativity. Can be used with permssion by contacting deAnn.