We love hippies, young “up and coming” hippies and old soul hippies.
What is a hippie: “a person, especially of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc.”
Our better together, Holly Hurt is NOT from the late 1960’s, but she is definitely a new generation Jesus hippie. (Check out Jesus and we could make some pretty solid arguments that He introduced hippie before hippie was cool.)
Holly rejects the cultural lures of our society. She does not need more stuff to fulfill her life. She is not chasing an American dream. She has discovered the treasure, Jesus, and she is chasing after Him. Following after Jesus has left her looking like a “rejecter.” A rejecter of the institutions that can bind us. Possessions do not hold her. She and her husband gave away their table to a single mama and their car to a newly married couple. Money is not her master. She is resourceful, preserving food for her family, sharing with her neighbors, making clothing for her girls out of refurbished products. She is rejecting perfection as a wife and mama, but brings her beautiful flaws, her tears, her fragile and gives all she has to love fully. Perfectly imperfect.
As a community member, spontaneity is one of her largest assets. With integrity, her word is gold, and when she says she’s coming, she is coming. A time conscious hippie, who would have thought?! She comes to No More Safety Pins and organizes the baby room into a beautiful shop for frazzled mamas. She comes to the Give and Take Room and folds clothing with love tucked all in the folds. She takes greasy rotisserie chickens and cleans the meat from the bones to freeze for future community meals. She creates gluten-free cheesecake because she is trying to find gluten-free recipes that taste amazing for her gluten-free family and friends. And y’all, her coconut soup is a taste of heaven. When Christmas gifts come by the box truck load, she brings order to chaos and helps distribute thousands of gifts in under a week. At food delivery, she is caught distributing detergent, toilet paper and diapers; not a car missed. For Mercedes Marathon clothing discard pickup, she is there and she is ready to serve. She comes and she serves with joy.
A common characteristic of Holly is laughter and tears. She feels so deeply, loving with her entire self, to the point that you always want her to be around because there is something so peaceful about her realness. When she listens, she is all there. Her phone does not distract her from the gift of presence. Give that lady a cup of coffee and it will be her simple delight. (Her husband does not prefer the smell of coffee so she chooses not to drink it at home. Isn’t that lovely, so Jesus hippie. Others first, always.)
Another fun attribute of Holly is her curly, flowing beautiful hair, her skirts and all her funky clothing. She can make anything look good and she creates the most amazing outfits out of folksy clothing. She even hula hoops, of course she would!! All that flowing clothing gives off this persona of comfort, flexibility and calm.
We all need a little more carefree in our days, more flexibility, more willingness to surrender to our Father, more courage to trust with reckless abandonment, more absolute gratitude and more faith that anything is possible. Holly brings all these attributes to Grace Klein Community to make us better, to teach us, to guide us, to chill us, to be our flower child.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” – Isaiah 55:12