Hi. MY NAME IS JORI KONRAD
I love all things boho and I always have. A dear friend once told me, you were boho before there was a name for it. There WAS a name for it back then, it was HIPPIE. Boho is the updated name for the "it" that I apparently possess. Let's see if you agree. You may be thinking, how can you be boho! You're too old!!! Well now, you are correct that I am not 18 years old, a size 2 and sporting a bikini to show off my fabulous tan and tattoos, but then that is probably why I feel compelled to write this blog to somewhat define what boho is to me. But before you close, I do have something to offer to all the beautiful, boho young (and old) people out there who inspire me everyday (because we are kindred spirits), so come along with me for a while and let me tell you my story.
Little did I know back then, when my friend pronounced me to be so boho, that this boho lifestyle and attitude that I had apparently identified with, would help me navigate through so many difficulties in my life like school, college, marriage, divorce, single parenthood and loneliness, cancer, dating after 40, re-marrying etc, etc. Luckily, it would also help me to realize my most lofty dreams too. An exciting story for a future post
In this blog I will share with you some of the day to day happenings in the life of this boho blogger (a new thing), cancer survivor, artist and positive thinker. It is my intention to uplift you, inspire you, reflect with you and to share with you my stories about my experiences, my art and other creations so that we can laugh together sometimes and sometimes I will look for your support and encouragement.
I will reflect upon and share a collection of my favorite things: fashion, jewelry, entertaining, food, artworks, and bath & beauty items through the lens of the boho lifestyle. I will share craft tutorials and how to's for some of my projects that you will see posted on Pinterest (also a relatively new thing). https://www.pinterest.com/jorikonrad/_saved/
Hopefully, my reflections in this blog will inspire you to embrace the happiness, and peace that is and has always been yours to enjoy, and to share a few laughs together.
And last before my first reflection, I was an educator for 30+ years (now retired) so I will teach now and then and I am most definitely a lifelong learner. Please share your kind comments and helpful criticisms with me as I learn how to do this and share my thoughts. I will save my goals regarding this effort for a future post.
First Reflections:
What is BOHO?
As I've grown older I have come to realize that the word boho really refers much more to a lifestyle than just a fashion style. It's about caring and lovingly co-existing with our planet and all living things by making responsible consumer decisions that will benefit everyone. From this attitude is born a type of spiritualism that can also be found in the boho soul. When I finally gave in to fully living my true life and dedicated my efforts to becoming the person I really am, I began to bloom. So for me, the boho lifestyle has helped me find true self LOVE (and love in general) because that’s where it all has to begin.
BOHO VS. HIPPIE
Just as 'boho' has come to be synonymous with a specific style, 'back then' the hippies had their own style too but they also had a common mindset. The flower children were about love and peace, and their agenda was to protest the Viet Nam war and war in general. The love for nature and the desire to find balance within it was widely embraced and everything was beautiful and sweet. So their hearts were in the right place and they were truly trying to set an example of how to live together harmoniously, they really hoped this example would demonstrate how to make the evolutionary jump to leave our warring ways, a very honorable intention. They believed this could be accomplished by creating their own societal rules around this philosophy while rejecting 'the existing conventions and hierarchies' of society at the time, which then led to the very nasty reaction of the powers that be and later on by society in general. Sound familiar?
It is true that some of that balance was synthetic due to the drug culture that became a part of the movement. Turn on, tune in, drop out, by Timothy Leary back in 1966 encouraged the use of LSD as a way to help one become enlightened, unfortunately with some not so great results. But rest assured, it was not the intention of the hippie community to become drug addicts. If there was a modern day stimulus of some kind to help us raise our vibrations to give us the capacity to become interdimensional beings would you experiment with it? Especially if it was being, for lack of a better term 'pushed' by someone who was an academic, someone who was supposed to know about these things? Think of the possibilities for the evolution of the species. I think this is where the hippies were coming from back in the 60s when so many willingly experimented with LSD. We are not so naive today, but the young people who were watching their friends and people their own age getting blown away on TV while fighting the Viet Nam war back then, were desperate for peace (this was the first time ever that a war was actually televised on the nightly news because the media was instructed to make it look like we were winning the war. In the end, there was no clear winner of the Viet Nam war, and there was a generation of young men and women who were lost).
By the time 1969 rolled around everyone was either watching the moon landing or trying to get to Woodstock. I was 7 years old watching Neil Armstrong, which also had a profound effect on me.
Mission Control during first landing on the moon
But the original sentiment of the hippies; peace, love, and harmony has remained and has gone through many modern iterations demonstrating that those ideals still resonate with gentle souls today. So when I hear the term boho, for me, it goes back to those who seek that harmony and the love that is required to accomplish it, which was beautiful back then just like it is now.
So love and peace to you, and blog #1 is now complete.
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