Tag Archives: life

Awakening / Oh divine droplets, part of One great ocean! Feel the surging wave? / Susan L Hart, HartInspirations.com

An Awakening Humanity

There is a spiritual revolution quietly brewing in the heart of humanity. A surging, monumental wave undulates persistently around the world. Can you feel it?

The process began with the pandemic. Isolation removed our normal distractions, making room for some valuable time for introspection. Oh, we tried our best to fill up that vacuum with various projects and more social media. But that nagging feeling that our lives weren’t quite right in the first place, “what are we trying to get back to?“ did not fully go away.

The curtain was pulled aside, the yawning void was revealed, and for some people that was scarier than any virus ever could be.

Questioning how we’ve been living our lives

I thought my life had meaning, now I’m not so sure. Why was I busting my butt all those mornings, commuting to a job I hated? Why did I put the dream of a big house before the dream of a happy and cohesive family? Why did I sacrifice my own dreams so I could try to measure up to society’s yard stick of success?

And on it goes. The monologue playing in your head would have been different than the next person’s, but you get the idea. We were (and still are) in a time of extreme self-examination, as we open our eyes to the dysfunctional aspects of society.

Much of it is not pretty, so we are inclined to turn our eyes away. But wait! Isn’t that what we’ve been doing for too long now? Losing ourselves in our technological devices? Trusting that everything would be taken care of for us by external authority? Trusting that the formula for life that society insisted we adhere to was a good one? Trusting the message that we shouldn’t trust in ourselves, after all, what could we possibly know?

The big opportunity for change

To say that this time is important is hugely understating it. Humanity is riding a wave, the cusp of a gargantuan shift in consciousness. Change is a scary proposition, and we have a tendency to avoid it at all cost. However, the uncomfortable global reality has thrown down the gauntlet for you, me, and the rest of humanity. The big question hanging in the air is, will we rise to the occasion and create a better society for ourselves, or continue to tell ourselves that someone else will “take care of it”?

It’s important that we all take the time to ask questions, and while we’re searching for the answers, listen not only to our heads, but also to our hearts and guts (intuition). There’s a collective voice crying to be heard, and you and I are part of it.

Hear its song and feel its pulse. We are all inextricably connected.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”~ Eckhart Tolle

“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.” ~ John O’Donohue

“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus

“You have wakened not out of sleep, but into a prior dream, and that dream lies within another, and so on, to infinity, which is the number of grains of sand. The path that you are to take is endless, and you will die before you have truly awakened.” ~ Jorge Luis Borges

“You are never alone. You are eternally connected with everyone.” ~ Amit Ray

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc., is sure to be noticed.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard

“A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.” ~ John Steinbeck


Coming VERY soon! The Turquoise Heart

Subscribe today to be notified of its arrival, and get a free ebook now.

The Love Cure

Infinite love already exists in everything that is alive, including you and me. Our love lessons are about removing the obstacles to love. They teach us out how to access, express and live it, if we choose to do so.

Fear, anger, prejudice… there are a myriad of padlocks with which we hold our love hostage. The experiences we have around love are all opportunities for self-examination. They teach us how to love better.

This can feel difficult in a world that is expressing so much dissension and “un-love”. Each of us is a key to healing it. Consider that perhaps the high tension and hatred being expressed in the world right now is a challenge to unlock our own love. Change begins within each of us.


Inspirational Quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”

“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”


The haiku Cure is an excerpt from Hart Haiku Vol. 1 / The Love Cure commentary is from 25 Big Ways to Grow Your Life (discontinued)


© Susan L Hart 2024

"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

Save It, Or Savor It?

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.


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

“Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”
~ Grace Paley

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

“There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.” ~ Blansky


Declaration

The future shines bright for
those who put intention there.
Reach for the brass ring!

Time to see ourselves
as the glorious beings
humans truly are.

Let’s choose to become
the galactic citizens
we were born to be.

Consciousness rising,
awareness of destiny,
the big unveiling!

Excitement builds as
we claim the potential of
our own Creation.


© Susan L Hart 2024

*Sorry I have been out of touch for almost two weeks. I’ve been finishing my novella, The Turquoise Heart. It will be free to my subscribers. Please subscribe if you’d like to be notified via my newsletter, soon.

Classic Light & Dark

The classic battle between light and dark is being played out right before our eyes. Remember all those movies where you were cheering for the hero(es) to win, and for goodness to prevail?

In our current reality, sometimes it is difficult to know who is on the side of the light. There are many forces at play, and there is a lot of double talk that makes it confusing.

Now is the time to use your own power of discernment. Look for the signs and the clues to find the truth. Listen to your gut. Here is an essential spiritual guiding thought: Something that truly has your best interests at heart does not want to control you. Control is rooted in dark energy. Energy of the light does not try to dominate and diminish. Light desires expansion, growth, and enlightenment, fulfilling its infinite potentiality.

Now, who has the best interest of you and the rest of humanity at heart?


Inspirational Quotes:

“Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.” ~ Veronica Roth

“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ~ Marcus Aurelius


A Different Reality

Just why is it
that we don’t
have a happier
world than this?

What are
we waiting for?
Someone
to give us
permission,
someone to
tell us how
to do it,
someone who’ll do
it for us.

Those some
ones aren’t
coming.

I want a
different reality,
I believe
that must
be possible,
and I want to
help build it.

How about you?


Tally

In the final act,
what will your answer be to,
“Did I live my truth?”


Classic Light & Dark is an archive from March 10, 2023

The poem A Different Reality and the haiku Tally are excerpts from Humanity’s Lament: Poetry for Our Times (It’s free.)

© Susan L Hart 2024

Travel to Find You

The world is a mirror, and travel has this way of peeling back our hidden layers. It makes a lie out of some of the stories we’ve been telling ourselves, and it shines a light on good parts as yet undiscovered. It challenges, grows, expands and inspires us in ways that we never expected. We lose ourselves, and we find ourselves.


And then beyond the idea of world travel in this 3rd dimensional Earth existence, what if our souls really are trans-dimensional? And what if we live many lives, working out our lessons and perfecting our energy?

Perhaps we would live life in a completely different way, not so tied down to the ideas of money, success, material possessions. Perhaps life here would be about a completely different experience.

I believe we are moving towards that, we just need to let go of some old ideas…


Inspirational Travel Quotes:

“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” ~ Anita Desai

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.” ~ Wallace Stevens

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ~ Mark Twain

“We travel for romance, we travel for architecture, and we travel to be lost.” ~ Ray Bradbury

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.” ~ Ruminator


The Trip

We arrive
with no luggage
and leave with
none too,
so why do we
spend a lifetime
accumulating
mere 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 can
cross over if we
don’t take care.

Traveling light
and loving well
are the real
accomplishments,
and as big as
they are, they
pack small
for the leaving.


Escape

Perhaps it’s just my lens because I’m a traveler at heart, but I think some of the best stories are rooted in travel. Of course, one person’s travel story is another person’s home story – and that is the essence of these journeys – discovering bits of one’s self in other cultures, and by extension, the call of our humanity.

The world’s in a pretty crazy place right now, and many of us are looking for calm places where we can heal and center ourselves. Judy Garland wistfully sang about it in Over the Rainbow, that place where “troubles melt like lemon drops”.

During an arm chair trip, I stumbled upon a wonderful story about just such a place of healing, created by a community of formerly abused African women. I’m looking forward to many more stories such as these, as the unfolding of a new humanity continues. It’s a saga of hope and possibilities, and beyond that, a confirmation that our best potential for the future lies in our ability to work together to achieve it.

Ghanaian photographer Paul Ninson on how he was able to visit the ‘village with no men’


Travel to Find You is a repost from August 16, 2022, Escape is a repost from July 6, 2023

The Trip is an excerpt from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life


© Susan L Hart 2024

Subscribe here to get my posts in your inbox: