Tag Archives: humanity

Save or Savor?

“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world, and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ~ E.B. White

I know exactly what E.B. White means…

Must it be a choice? Perhaps the answer to E.B. White’s dilemma is to savor the world every day, while we save it. Or maybe savoring it, in actual fact, saves it? (Gratitude and reverence.)

It’s a very delicate balance. I believe we are here to do both.

What do artists and writers have to say about the world? Speaking as both, I think they fall into two main categories. They either want you to see the beauty, so you’ll savor it. Or, they want you to see the ugliness and pain, so that you’ll help to make it better. I think there is value in both approaches. My art (drawings and paintings) have always been about the beauty. In my writing, I try to walk a line of showing both sides of the coin, because life is hugely complex, and we cannot truly appreciate anything without tasting its opposite.

On days when the state of the world gets me a little bit down, I come back to thoughts of purpose. This is a very beautiful world (the Earth and we humans who inhabit it), one to be savored (life is a gift), and therefore one worth saving from that which craves to destroy it. Part of my personal journey has been one of finding the correct balance of save and savor, because if one is not careful, “save” can begin to overtake.

I hope you have a beautiful Sunday, however you spend it. For me, Sunday is purely a savor day, one of rest and to focus on the beauty.

Inspirational Quotes

“We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”
~ Joseph Campbell

“What I’ve come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.”
~ Chris Abani

“Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.” ~ Amal El-Mohta

Life Is a Gift

It’s a blue-sky day,
one of those
beauteous blue-full,
joyously jocular,
splendidly splashy,
exceptional days –
I long to shout
LIFE IS A GIFT
in unmistakable
letters across the
blue shiny yonder,
to imprint them
indelibly on your
mind, so you’ll –

Remember when
the dark clouds roll
in, on a day when
life feels pissy and
oh so problematic,
to take a deep breath,
and close your eyes,
and gently pull the
gray gloom aside,
to see those big
oh so true words
I etched on blue
for you, so that
you’d never forget –

Life is a gift.

My Gifts from the Sea

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One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

The quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh reminds me of one of the first Christmases away from my family whilst traveling. Heart sick in Australia, I was missing them terribly, so I went for a walk on a beach at Glenelg, Adelaide to center myself.

I had walked that beach quite a few times before, but there were never more than a sparse few shells. That Christmas Day the beach was covered with them. I’m a huge lover of the ocean, and I walked in bliss for a long time, soaking up the sunshine, immersed in the beauty, and collecting a few shells to takeaway. I felt that some angel had heard my prayers and laid these gifts on the beach to soothe my soul.

My family’s heritage includes Scottish, and I love the stirring sound of the bagpipes. From a balcony high up on one of the apartment buildings overlooking the beach, a lone sentinel dressed formally in kilt, played them for me as I walked under a cloudless azure sky. I can still see and feel all of it.

What were the chances? I suddenly did not feel so bereft; I was clearly cradled by energies watching out over me.

Everything is part of One. Never doubt it for a second…

“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.” ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

I Am Ocean

Snowflakes
falling softly
tentatively
pure, white
innocent
new life.

I Am one.

Earth
cold hard
dormant
I land here.
I am ice, I am lost.
I wait.

Spring comes
warm sun,
I melt into
playing, trickling
tiny Rivulet.

I am born.

Playful riffles
gently learning
to flow
to maneuver
to be Stream.

Time passing,
stream is good
but I want more,
then suddenly –
rushing, roaring,
swirling, foaming

I become River.

Sometimes sunlight
flowing smoothly,
other times storms,
rocks, gashing
hard, struggling.

Learning
to be with rocks,
trees, sky,
other rivulets,
and streams.

I Am more.

Time passing,
waiting and
wanting,
with a deep
hunger inside
for vast.

And finally,
I let go
of myself
and transform,
to endless, infinite
water ocean.

I die.
I am born.
I Am One.

The poem I Am Ocean is from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. It’s free to read or download here.

For Small Creatures Such As We

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“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” ~ Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan was right, it’s our love for our families, our love of life that keeps us sane and going in an insane world. But will love sustain us forever? I suppose in the higher realms, yes. But what about here on Earth, right now? While some madmen are threatening each other with atomic weapons, and others are building AI they hope to use to control human civilization, where are the true humans in the equation? You know who I mean: We the ones who are thinking about our work, our families, how to build a life within all of this madness. We love. And there’s the crucial difference from the “inhumans”. We love.

We are caught up in the minutiae of our lives, and perhaps not always paying attention to the bigger drama unfolding before us. Yes, I think our love has the power to save us, but not in some fairy tale, Pollyanna way. Spiritual warriors love, yes, but they are also prepared to defend that which they love, with eyes wide open.

There is a very good word, it’s a very short and powerful one, but much underused. That word is “No”. It is important to simply say no to and turn our backs on that which appears to not have the best interests of humans at heart. Then we can use our energy to imagine and build the world we want, together.

In It Together

In a system that feels
heartless and remote,
now more than ever
we must reach out to
others in kindness,
in a personal way,
human-to-human.

The problems of
all of humanity
are now breaching
our own backyards;
it’s no longer possible
to turn a blind eye,
we’re in it together.

“In It Together” from Humanity’s Lament: Poetry for Our Times

Susan L Hart 2025 | HartInspirations.com | Free ebooks

Dream a New Dream

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Do you observe life and ask yourself, “What part of this is truly real?” The natural world is real, nature is real, you as an organic human being are real, but everything you observe around you in society is part of a contrived and enforced matrix.

Do you ever feel like you are simply existing in a program over which you have no control? The matrix of society is built on ever-shifting sand, where individuals at the top of the social hierarchy constantly make up new rules for those “beneath them”.

When I was a child, I had several recurring lucid nightmares that haunted me night after night, until my consciousness finally realized that I actually had the power to direct my dreams and change the outcome. When I came to that realization and experimented with it, the fear-induced dreams ended. Whatever part of my psyche that was susceptible to the fear was overruled by my deep desire and intention to overcome it.

Why is our awake time in this world any different? We can play victim to the fear spun in this authority and media contrived matrix, or we can decide that we will have intention to manifest a different outcome for ourselves.

What will be your dream of life today? Theirs, or yours?

A New Paradigm

We stand on the cusp
of a new time,
a new way of being.

Discontent with a
world that promotes
war for profit,
materialism as self-worth,
divides and conquers
us at every turn.

We say “no” to it all,
and envision a world
where freedom and peace,
love for the Earth
and humanity at large
become reality.

Where abundance in
every way possible
is made manifest
for the good of All,
and love is the force
that prevails.

We have the power
with our thoughts,
love, and intention
to create this
New Paradigm,
and the time is now.

Legend of the Rainbow Warriors

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The Māori of New Zealand pay homage to many ancient legends and stories that explain their beginnings, their ancestors, their deep connection with Papatūānuku (Mother Earth), and their relationship with Io-Matua-Kore, God-the-Parentless, the supreme spiritual power.

The Three Baskets of Knowledge is the story of Tāne, the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatūanuku, the sky father and the earth mother. Tāne was called to make the journey and ascend through the many realms to the uppermost realm, occupied only by Io-Matua-Kore, in order to obtain the three baskets of knowledge (of upper realms, the rainbow, and spiritual powers) and bring them back to Earth for the benefit of all humankind.

The rainbow as a bridge between realms, and as a sign of hope and inspiration for the world, is found in countless legends and stories of the indigenous cultures. Many believe that under the symbol of the rainbow, humanity will come into balance with one another and the Earth to experience the Golden Age.

There is an ancient theme that runs through many American Native legends that warns of the devastation the European white man would bring to the land. However, the myths also promise that when the devastation was at its worst, spiritually aligned souls among peoples of all colors, peoples of the rainbow, would feel a calling of spirit and come together to bring life back into proper balance.

These souls, who would do no violence and would work to end violence, would be called the Rainbow Warriors. The time of the Rainbow Warriors has come.

“When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear; when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.” ~ Chief Seattle (Seathl), Du-wamish-Suquamish, 1785-1866

This post is excerpted from Our Beautiful Earth. A free PDF version is available when you subscribe here for occasional author newsletters. The full PDF version with more of my personal art (same text), with a bonus EPUB format is available for $2.99 here.

Thank you for reading! 🙂