Tag Archives: nature

Not a Blue Monday

No Monday blues here. I’m bringing you some of Nature’s signature green to start your week feeling uplifted and rejuvenated. Think of it as a building block, a foundation for your day (and I hope) for your week. Build on it.

Pen onto your calendar, right now, something that will uplift you each and every day. Commit to those goals. They can be small, and they don’t have to cost money. Perhaps just a little extra time daily to take a walk, ride your bike, pick up that book you’ve been meaning to get to, or more time spent talking with members of your family, face-to-face. Make your well-being and happiness the most important item on your calendar this week. (And yes, I intend to step up to the challenge, too. 🙂 )

You know the things that bring you personal happiness, that lift your heart. It is the focus upon and gratitude for all the seemingly small things that give life much of its delight.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ~ John Muir

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” ~ John Muir

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~ John Muir

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

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.

Poem Life is a Gift is an excerpt from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life.

Do the Dance of Spring

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How our souls yearn for spring, for the sweetness of it, the rebirth of green and the feeling that no matter how hard the winter was, we endured it. We are finally rewarded with the chance to start afresh…

Our dreams are renewed in spring; we feel like anything is possible. The vitality of life runs through our veins again, just as the sap flows in the trees.

My heart drifts back to sweet memories of spring, accompanying my dad to the sugar bush, snow still on the ground, but the sun promising the coming warmth of summer. And hauling a big tin of maple syrup home, feeling the abundance that the Earth had provided. Even as a kid I appreciated it, the sweetness of this simple annual ritual with my father.

Our backyard boasted both a cherry and an apple tree; one would flower pink, the other white. I loved walking way down to the end of the yard, simply to admire the beautiful blossoms and breathe in their intoxicating, delicate scent.

Much later in adulthood, I discovered travel stories of Japan, and now my soul yearns to visit a place where the cherry blossom is revered and celebrated. Some day I will, paying homage to girlhood memories, springtime, my father, and the beauty of life, which ideally we should celebrate every day.

But oh, how it feels easier to celebrate that beauty in springtime!

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~ Albert Camus

Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes The Sun. This classic Beatles song never fails to make my heart sing. According to Wikipedia: “As of 2021, it was the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify globally.”

The song is now 56 years old, written early in 1969 by George Harrison, apparently at the home of Eric Clapton. So why the sustained popularity?

There is something about the arrival of the sun that is energizing and uplifting. The song is about spring, respite from a cold, bleak winter, when the sun becomes stronger in the Northern Hemisphere. We turn our faces to the sun in gratitude, eager to embrace the fresh start.

This is why each sunrise also feels like a special gift, deep in our souls. It is a tangible sign of each day’s new beginning, and all of the opportunity that comes with it.

Hence this haiku I wrote to celebrate the enduring presence of the sun in our lives:

Grateful for you, Sun,
your ceaseless radiance greets
and anchors my day.

“Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.” (Thich Nhat Hahn)

And, Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it this weekend!

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© Susan L Hart 2025

You can also find me on Substack at: HumanitysFuture.net

Whale

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Our telepathy
meets in a monumental
hello of two hearts.

I call, you come, and
brush gently against the boat,
crooning your love song.

Pausing a moment,
is that a wink I detect?
You flirt, then farewell!

Will you invite me
to frolic in frothing waves?
Besotted, I wait.

This poem was inspired by a whale watching trip (humpbacks) a few years ago. I very much wanted to have a close encounter with a whale, so before the trip I meditated and asked for the whales to hear me, and for one to come and visit.

The day we went out the whale watching seemed dismal. There were a few sightings of them breaching and jumping high in the air, but they were far away. Wherever our boat went, the whales were not close. I had almost given up inside (“Where are you? Please come.”) and was standing away from the group on the boat. Suddenly the guide came over and excitedly tugged on my jacket. “Come over here! Now!”

I went over to the other side of the boat, and a whale had quietly surfaced right beside the boat, nestled right up against it. “There you are!”

The whale moaned his whale talk a couple of times, then waited a moment, and submerged. To this day I’m absolutely certain he came especially to say “Hello” to me. Can’t prove it, but sometimes you just know…

What special encounter(s) have you had with the animal world? And do you believe in telepathic communication? I would love to hear your comments. 🙂

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Earth has Her Moods

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For many years I have practiced daily walking outdoors. These quiet, meditative times allow me to relax and escape my monkey mind cage.

Daily walking requires a certain self-discipline, because realistically every day does not offer “perfect weather”. (We all have our own definition of that. If we didn’t, people wouldn’t talk about the weather so much!) I have walked in cold, rain, snow, and gloom as much as I have enjoyed sunshine and bright, shiny walks. I have come to love all of it.

Here’s the thing: I love sunshine as much as the next person, and when we’re feeling down, the sun can be a real mood lifter. But depending on what I’m dealing with in my day, sunshine can feel like a good friend trying to jolly me out of my problems, rather than allowing space for my mood.

My observation over the years is that those moody, rainy, snowy, cloudy days also have their own merit for solitude and introspection. They are the perfect back drop to quiet my conscious mind. There I inevitably find the space for the true answers to come through from my subconscious.

Rain or shine, nature is my therapy. Without fail, I find the beauty, grace, quiet and solitude I need to transcend the rat race.

Moods

Sky dons her mood face,
sulking clouds mirror my mind,
silent I reflect.

Rejuvenate

When city voids me,
I flee to garden refuge.
Hummingbird dances.

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” ~ Bob Marley

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” ~ John Ruskin

“As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?” ~ Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“I am a tiny seashell that has secretly drifted ashore and carries the sound of the ocean surging through its body.” ~ Edward Hirsch

The haiku Rejuvenate is from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life

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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! 🙂