There is you and there is society.
You see yourself as a contributor to your society. (That’s a good thing.)
But there are those who have a great deal of control in your society who see you only as a servant to their society.
There is a vast chasm between those two viewpoints, don’t you think?
Who has control over your destiny right now?
And if you don’t like the answer, how to change that?
Susan L Hart 2023 | HartInspirations.com
I’ve been toying for awhile now with the idea of adding some illustrations to my stories. This means I need to brush up on my drawing skills; I’ve been away from making art for quite some time.
I love wildlife, so this morning I just randomly picked a photo of a bird to work from. I’m not 100% happy with it, but as a quick first attempt, it’s not too bad. Yay! It’s like riding a bike.
I will post some more sketches as I practice. (Sorry for the quality of the photo – in future I’ll scan the work – this will get better.)
Susan L Hart 2023 | HartInspirations.com
Who am I? Genetics, environment, and experience, they have all helped to shape me. I was born into this life with a touch of auburn in my hair from Dad, and long piano playing fingers from Mom.
But father, why did you not give me the flaming locks that run in your Scottish family? Why just a whisper of red for me? I have a fire inside that rages, and a call to blaze a path in this world. My Maori friend calls me “Fire”. Perhaps it is so my flame is evident only to those with eyes that see deeper?
And mother, why was I born with your hands and no musical talent? It felt cruel. It was a source of frustration to me that I failed at piano lessons. Perhaps it was so I could learn to see in myself what is, rather than what is not?
One summer afternoon, the girl I was lay on her bed daydreaming. I left my body and up I rose until I floated among the stars, tethered to Earth by a slender silver thread. I felt infinity for the first time, and I realized that I was so much more than they were telling me.
I am the artist in France, learning to express my soul on canvas. In this present life, I recall those lessons easily. Painting is like breathing to me. That other self walks in Monet’s garden, and I yearn to again. A photo of the Seine in the fog makes my heart ache with longing. It is a happy life.
I am the Japanese geisha in love with a powerful man. He loves me, but we cannot be together. Even now, pink cherry blossoms in spring make my heart both sing and weep, all at the same time. The lesson? I love and I am loved. In the end, the love is all that is important.
Sometimes when I walk along the sidewalk, I recognize a piece of myself in a stranger’s eyes. How can I say what it is exactly? It is fleeting, but I see it, and I feel it.
When I pass a beggar on the street, I attach a blessing to the coin I give. In my mind I say, “I know you, and I feel your pain. I have been where you are. It is a lesson you are learning, and it will all be okay.”
There is so much of me flooding in from the world, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it. So I wash the dishes or sweep the floor, ordinary tasks that ground me in the here and now.
But I can never deny to myself, or to the world, that which I know to be true: I am stardust. I am Infinite. I am part of it All.
Susan L Hart 2023 | HartInspirations.com
When the day comes,
and come it will
if we don’t stop,
when we finally
stand together
much too late,
to view in horror
the destruction
we have wrought,
it was all for naught,
when all we had
to do was lay
down our arms
and demand that
our governments
stop warring too,
and decide once
and for all that
building is better
than tearing down,
then we’d begin
the upward spiral,
when will it start?
Maybe we have
not lost enough
yet to recognize
the stupidity, no…
the absolute
horror of it all.
© Susan L Hart 2023 | HartInspirations.com / My ebooks
How many people suffer through a lifelong low-grade malaise instead of living a full-on vibrant life, simply because they did not choose to live their dream?
“It’s not my fault. No one told me I should.”
Currently we live in a world that too often does not support creativity and independent thinking, but rather encourages conformity and obedience. The system makes it easy to cop out on our dreams and take the safe, easy path. We’re not taught to have any kind of vision of our own brilliance and bravely follow it.
But built into this equation is also the fact that we ultimately are responsible for our decisions. No one else. And therein lies the real crux of it. There’s also a current trend that says it’s okay to blame someone else, anyone else, for everything that is wrong with one’s life.
Not taking personal responsibility may be the biggest societal malaise of all. If things go wrong out there in the big, bad world, we can blame the system. But wait! We agree to and support it, so we really only have ourselves to blame.
Perhaps real change begins by encouraging the next generation to truly embrace their creativity from a very young age, and not just learning by rote for a society that is outdated and failing.
And perhaps more than that, we need more love, empathy, and support between each other on a personal level. If we cannot count on the support of each other to build our dreams, and as well to have empathy and lend a hand to someone whose dreams are temporarily in tatters, then the system will have succeeded in killing our humanness.
Let’s not let it do that to us.
© Susan L Hart | HartInspirations.com
Susan L Hart / Author 