Tag Archives: life

Dreams Out of Africa

I watched Out of Africa again yesterday. Love that story, perhaps because it is based on the real-life memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pen name of Danish author Karen Blixen). Africa was her great adventure. I remember a long time ago, a high school teacher asked our class if we could travel anywhere, where would it be? Some of my classmates wanted to go to the next town, the next province, the country next door. I put my hand up and said, “Africa”.

Pregnant pause; the teacher looked at me like I was from Mars. I guess I dreamed bigger than most, because I read voraciously as a child and teenager, and books were seeding big dreams in me.

Fast forward to now, and I have traveled and lived in various parts of the world. But, I have yet to see Africa. It’s important to keep one dream unspent for a while, I think. It gives one something to aim for. 🙂

Some day I hope Africa and I will learn a song of each other:

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” ~ Isak Dinesen

Of course, watching the movie this time was tinged with a some sadness with the death of Robert Redford just 4 days ago. The character he played in Out of Africa, Deny Finch Hatton – Karen Blixen’s love – was killed in a plane crash before she left Africa. Denys was buried in the Ngong Hills. Later when back in Denmark, Karen wrote this about some correspondence she received about his grave site:

“‘The Masai have reported to the District Commissioner at Ngong, that many times, at sunrise and sunset, they have seen lions on Finch Hatton’s grave in the the Hills. A lion and lioness have come there, and stood, or lain, on the grave for a long time…After you went away, the ground round the grave was leveled out, into a sort of big terrace. I suppose that the level place makes a good site for the lions, from there they can have a view over the plain, the cattle and game on it.’

Denys will like that. I must remember to tell him.”

Create, and change the world

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I’m a firm believer that one of the easiest ways we change the world is by simply employing the creativity we were born with. You’re not creative, you say? Pshaw! I’m not buying it for a second! Think outside of the box of “painter, writer, musician”, etc. These are the artistic pursuits that we easily think of as creative, but creative is not just talent in any certain area. It is a way of being, an approach to life that can add color and vitality to anything and everything we touch. Creativity brings life alive.

Look inside yourself. There is at least one thing at which you are naturally adept, and there are likely many. You didn’t really have to learn it; you were just immediately good when you tried it. The best part is, it makes your heart happy when you do that thing.

The joy that you feel when you honor yourself vibrates outward and brings great joy to others. It also inspires them to do the same. I do believe that is a big part of life’s purpose, to express those special talents and abilities that we each carry inside of us. Create, build, and play!

You’ll be making the make the world a brighter place while you’re at it. 🙂

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” (Rumi)

Inspirational Creativity Quotes:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut,

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Creativity takes courage. ” ~ Henri Matisse

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” ~ Osho

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

River

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I just read a post by my friend Alegria here on WordPress. I loved it so much I’m sharing a link to it in this post, along with two writings of my own on the theme of “river”. Because it all intertwines, you see. Alegria and I are friends, also writers, and part of the bigger river called humanity. We’re two tributaries intertwined in a gargantuan collective flow of thought, love, and learning.

Humanity is expanding right now. Can you feel it? We are all starting to realize that life is much bigger and more exciting than the small existence that the system tries to sell us. Life is, in fact, a soul journey. Alegria and I both feel that soul journey, so I wanted to share this post with her. And you. 🙂

I Am Ocean (Susan L Hart)

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.

Both poems are from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life, © Susan L Hart

River Tubing on the Layou Dominica Like the Flow of Life

And to continue the metaphor of life as a river, please take time for Alegria’s post River Tubing on the Layou Dominica Like the Flow of Life. I told her when I read it, even though I’m pretty fearless about the bigger picture of life, those nature adventures that could lead to danger scare me more than a little. That’s because I’ve had some frightening unexpected mishaps involving nature during my travels. Alegria’a adventure begins:

“The gentle nudge into open waters reminds me of the birthing process. I’m not sure if children choose to be born, but they are pushed out into this wild world without a paddle or a rubber tube. At least I had each of those on my river tubing adventure down the Layou River in Dominica. Read “River Tubing on the Layou Dominica Like the Flow of Life” here.

Hope you enjoyed this read, and I’m sending good wishes that the river of life is taking you in directions that make you feel happy and fulfilled. 🙂

~ Susan L Hart, SusanLHart.com

Feeling Crazy

Finding Light in the Shadows

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I am posting these poems today for some people close to me who have suddenly lost a longtime beloved friend. They are devastated. These losses rip through us, and how to find solace and meaning in it? In the case of “Loss Unveils the Masterpiece”, the creation of Michelangelo’s David is a metaphor for the beauty of our souls, chiseled to perfection over lifetimes by our loves lost.

These poems are dedicated to Peter Anthony Lubka. Thank you for the joy you gave to us in your time here, the lessons in your leaving, and may your soul now be dancing on the wind, on its way to the next adventure. We’ll be watching for you.

Loss Unveils the Masterpiece

Michelangelo knew …

A most powerful
tool of the Master Sculptor,
Loss is.
It was the taking
away that unveiled
breathtaking David
to the world.

“I saw the angel
in the stone and
set him free.”
Inside every raw
slab of marble
a masterpiece waits
to be revealed.

We are all
magnificent works
of art in progress,
and losing a beloved
is perhaps the
greatest Master
chisel of all.

We gasp, clasping
our hearts when
our loved one dies
or leaves us.
How will we ever
risk to love again?
And yet, we do.

For in our loss
we learn to cherish
the value of love.
We understand
the power and
importance of “now”,
and we grow.

Love is the fine grit
that hones the
rough broken edges
to a polished glow.
The answer to our
growth lies within
the problem itself.

Michelangelo, you said
God guided your hand,
and in the taking away,
you revealed
astonishing beauty.
David is your work of love,
and a lesson for us all.

Message in a Bottle

Chisel not my name
onto elegant stone,
so you that I love
might become slave
to a time and place
that no longer holds
my soul, to which you
could become tied,
lost in sorrow and
life’s limitations.

Rather, joyfully cast
my dust to the wind, so
I may dance on the breeze,
and one day as the leaves
rustle gently overhead,
you will feel me there,
riding a ray of sunshine
kissing your face, and
I’ll whisper in your ear,
“Remember to live free.”

Eternal Rhythm

The golden leaves fall,
fearing not the decay of
a coming winter.

Death is essential
to the renewal of life –
All will spring again.

If each in nature
can feel this simple rhythm,
so can humans too.

Why do we resist?
Our fears overshadow the
truth of our being.

But the fall leaves know,
they show us that we too will
green the tree anew.

All poems are excerpts from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. For this weekend I am offering this ebook free as a gift to readers of this post. Download here.