Going Native

I have always loved this belt buckle. For those of you who may not know, (but I am sure many of you do), I was a raging hippie (that seems like an oxymoron no?) I travelled all over the country to any Grateful Dead show I could get tickets to or not. The tickets part didn't really matter, it was all about the "family", the travel, the tribe. As a mother of two young girls now, I think about the fact that my mother let me go. Although I am not sure she really had a choice. I will never forget, coming home from a string of Dead shows on the east coast one summer, and announcing to her that I was not going to college, that instead I was going to go out to California to go to Mount Shasta to experience the Harmonic convergence. WTF?! And you know what? She did not go crazy (although I am sure she was losing her mind on the inside). She helped me do my laundry, pack my backpack, and let me go. Before I left she handed me an envelope, inside she had handwritten all the lyrics to Cat Steven's "Wild World". Can you imagine, what that took for her? In pre cell phone, pre internet, almost pre calling card days, to let your child go out into the world like that? I can't. I am amazed at how she handled that, and you know what? I called her on the Harmonic Convergence, after a vision quest on Mt. Shasta, and when I called, she said " I know exactly where you are" And she was right! She loved me enough to let me go and try and find my own way. In retrospect, I would like to believe that she had faith in me. Mamma, thanks for giving me roots and wings.