The Flower Child: My Unexpected Awakening (A true story)

By Burt Berlowe 

While standing on the sidewalk near my front yard on a muggy, steamy July day, I noticed a woman approaching from the street. Her rotund body was encased in a long multi-colored skirt and baggy light green top, with a white flower placed neatly on the left side of her brown hair. She was carrying a small zipped case with a University of Minnesota logo on it. She appeared headed for a transitional group home for mentally ill adults next door to our house. We exchanged greetings, then she came closer to continue the conversation.

“Do you know the secret of life?” she asked nonchalantly.

“Oh do you know what it is?’ I responded, taken aback by the bold introductory question.

“Do you want me to tell you?”

For some reason, I didn’t pursue the answer then. “Do you live in the group home?” I asked instead.

She nodded and a slight smile of relief creased her round face. “I am getting out of here tomorrow,” she said, after three months. “I will be so glad to be free from addicts and alcoholics. Society doesn’t treat mentally people very well. I’ve been in the hospital. I’ve been in jail. I just want to be free.”

The key to peace

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Read the full article, and others like it at: http://edgemagazine.net/2012/01/the-flower-child/