Category Archives: Inspiration Author

The Trip

We arrive
with no luggage
and leave with
none too,
so why do we
spend a lifetime
accumulating
things?

To prop up
our egos,
and relieve
our boredom,
to salve our
hurts, and
impress the
neighbors.

Within the
glorious potential
of the soul’s
quest, we lay
waste to what
could have been
for the next
new toy.

The kids
fight over the
treasures
left behind
by their parents,
thinking that the
having is some
kind of victory.

But the wounds
inflicted in the
fight for more
are baggage of
a different kind,
ones that we
take with us if
we’re not careful.

Our experiences
and loving well
are the real
souvenirs,
and as big
as those are,
they pack light
to go home.

The Trip © Susan L Hart 2023

Susan L Hart 2023 / HartInspirations.com

Undeniably Connected

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When we really tune into nature, we hook into the divine energy (whatever we each believe that to be) that breathes in all living things. We feel connected. Our souls transcend the mundane and we remember our infinite essence.

The divine is evident in the tiny dragonfly, but sometimes it takes a mighty mountain to awaken our souls. When we gaze upward at that magnificent rock face, we feel small and big, all at the same time.

The sublime grandeur within and without is undeniable. If such a thing exists in the world, then surely anything must be possible. And yes, it is.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (Henry David Thoreau)

Susan L Hart 2023 / HartInspirations.com

Walking in Wonderland

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“Walking in a winter wonderland…” Every year at Christmas time, this classic song has a way of making Northern Hemisphere dwellers slip into nostalgic myopia. After all, what could be more romantic than a fresh snowfall for the big holiday?

Being a hopeless romantic myself, when I began traveling I would still pine for snow during the holiday season. Hmm. The classic White Christmas. I miss it. Even in places that never have snow, a white Christmas seems to be the eternal dreamy ideal. I’ve seen fake snow sprayed on many a shop window around the equator, on both sides of the world. Yes, it’s the BIG DREAM.

The reality? I loved snow during my childhood winters. Skating, tobogganing, building ice forts, snow ball fights – winter was my favorite season. It was fun. As an adult, not so much!

Adults are the ones who shovel snow and scrape ice and commute bad roads to and from work, day after day after grueling miserable freezing day. Winter can surely be a grind. That’s why I feel deep empathy right now for my friends Up North. Much to their chagrin, the romance of Christmas feels already long gone, and they are faced with the reality of winter.

Oh yes, I will grant you there were days when a fresh powdery snow would cover the tree branches so magically, it would take my breath away. And all that horrible shoveling and winter driving would almost all seem worth it.

Almost. 🙂

Susan L Hart 2023 / HartInspirations.com

Wishing You Joy & Light

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The Christmas season is here, and with it a myriad of memories, feelings, and images. The events of the past few years have magnified the importance of the people in our lives, and also our connection to our greater humanity. When I think of words that are most evocative of Christmas for me, JOY tops the list.

There is definitely a heightened feeling of love and goodwill at this time of year. It gives me joy to see people take a little rest from the regular routines, worries, and burdens of every day life. There are not nearly enough celebrations in our lives, and particularly lately. Life is something we should be enjoying too, not constantly “slaving at”.

I think of joy is a life keyword, an evaluator of the world around me. I’m feeling that if our world was better balanced and society fairer, we’d be seeing a lot more joy on an every day basis.

This is something for all of us to contemplate for the new year 2023 just ahead. How will we claim and live our joy? And not just our joy, but all of the positive aspects of life that we deserve. These are our lives, and all the moments in them are precious.

I realize that some people reading this may not celebrate Christmas. Take a moment to think of your own culture’s sacred traditions and celebrations. What one word is evocative of how you feel as you share those celebrations with family and friends?

I send you sincere best wishes for all the JOY your heart can hold. As you gather the people that you love around you, may your days be filled with a blaze of Light.

Susan L Hart 2022 / HartInspirations.com

Your Amazing Uniqueness

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Do you recognize and value your own special uniqueness? We live in a creative universe that is infinite and knows no bounds. Your extraordinary singularity is nothing less than a miracle of Life.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”. In a society that touts conformity and wants to keep you small, the challenge is to objectively identify that which makes you unique, and then nurture and let it bloom, never allowing anyone to make you believe that it’s bad to be YOU.

We are all souls learning here on Earth, separate and yet also bound together as fractals of a greater whole. We each are imperfect (and yet perfect) in our varying stages of personal growth. Perspective, understanding, compassion, and kindness are higher spiritual attributes that go a long way towards helping each other on our individual paths of learning.

It is a common human condition to harbor fears that we are never quite acceptable. We are taught from a young age that conformity to certain standards will earn us society’s stamp of approval. That guarantees us the ultimate ego comfort zone, but at what cost?

Observe the current growing movement for social conformity to a single one-world ideology. If we agree to society’s demand that we think, do, and say the same as everyone else, what kind of lives are we living? Certainly they are not ones we could call our own. This could not be deemed expansive, either in terms of our personal soul growth, or the evolution of the collective we call humanity.

Therefore never let go of what is amazingly, astonishingly, exceptionally YOU. Embrace all of the wonderful attributes that make you a distinctive human being. Defend your right to think your own thoughts and speak your truth.

The world needs your inspired heart and spirit, your inner fire, perhaps more now than at any other time in history.

The above is a an excerpt from my ebook Becoming Bigger: Realizations of Self & Humanity.

As a footnote: Rapid and extreme changes are taking place in society right now. The big decision for humanity during this evolution of society is this: Where is the line between the unique individual, who has a soul, who came here to learn and build a life, and their responsibility to society? Is that individual part of society, or a piece of property of the society?

Susan L Hart 2022 / HartInspirations.com