Tag Archives: self-realization

At the Heart of the Matter

The actress Goldie Hawn won her only Oscar for her role in the movie Cactus Flower, and it came at a young age and early in her acting career. Goldie played a ditzy young woman (a most logical casting from her acting in the Laugh-In TV series), but the character was complex and brilliantly played, because underneath that seemingly simple surface was a complex personality with a big trusting heart, and grounded in her own sense of treating others well.

“The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But It will only grow in the mud.” Both her role as Toni Simmons in Cactus Flower, and this quote by the real-life Goldie, speak volumes about not “judging a book by its cover”. What kind of heart beats beneath the cover?

Perhaps our world would be a much better place if that one question was the way we primarily navigated our way through it, rather than “how much money do you make, how big is your house, what’s your status?…” It’s a shift from a societal matrix barometer to a feeling human one.

More quotes from Goldie Hawn:

“The key is to learn to respect and honor the complications of other people’s lives”

“It is the simplest things in life that hold the most wonder; the color of the sea, the sand between your toes, the laughter of a child.”

“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.”

“Wonder shows in the light of our eyes. Without it, they become dull and old.”

“You know that feeling just before you’re going to laugh? That thing where you get all bubbled up?… It’s like a bubble of laughter, but it hasn’t come out yet…?
That’s what God feels like.
It’s a feeling of joy and love and well-being.”

Susan L Hart 2023 / HartInspirations.com

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What Kind of Utopia?

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“We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” ~ George Orwell, 1984

George Orwell’s quote begs the question, is there a such a place of no darkness in this 3rd-dimensional Earth plane? History has shown that it has always existed, and so we might extrapolate that it likely always will to one degree or another. After all, challenge appears to be a crucial factor in sparking self-illumination in humans, and is that not why our souls choose to have an experience of life in a human body on this planet? To grow?

I’ve tried to imagine what life would be like if we had no challenge, and, is that how we would define utopia? It would be pretty darned boring, I think. Having said that, I also think that human beings at this time are being weighted by too many unnecessary obstacles, and much of it is rooted in a choke hold of governmental overreach. It’s feeling to me like we’re moving towards the type of dystopia Orwell wrote about.

Somehow the rules that were meant to organize and make a functioning and safe society have morphed into a monster, one that thinks it has the right to completely control our lives. It increasingly behaves as thought it owns us. Ask yourself, were you born onto this planet to be owned by an entity?

The whole point of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 was to present to the reader a vision of a kind of world that we may not want. Do we? Or, don’t we? Human life (I think) will never be without challenge. But how do we envision a kind of “utopia” that is gentler and nurturing, and yet still involves enough challenge that we are energized by it, that still provides the impetus to grow? Why is our growth contingent on so much darkness? There must be a different way. I believe it is something that we have never known yet on this planet.

This may be our greatest challenge of all right now: To open our minds enough to allow for something completely new and different, not just an overhaul or cosmetic change of what we have always known. We are completely capable of creating a new reality, but only if we see what society is right now, and free ourselves enough to move beyond it.

Hartinspirations.com | My ebooks

Threshold of Your Mind

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The most effective mentors in my life taught me by their example, while not treating me as inferior at along the way. They “led me to the threshold of my mind”. There was always a sort of flow, a reciprocal give and take of learning and teaching between us that was enjoyable. Those relationships have tended to last.

There have been other teachers where there was a sort of ego thing going on; they clearly wanted me to “stay in my place” as a student. This sort of relationship starts to chafe after a while. At a certain point, in spite of being grateful for the learning, there was no real space for me in the relationship any more. I had to move on.

What has been your experience with mentors?

Hartinspirations.com | My ebooks

Joy of the Unexpected

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Imagine walking out your front door one morning to encounter an elephant walking down the street. What a delightful new experience it was for me in Thailand! This is one of the absolute joys of traveling, discovering the new. I do believe that the new is what helps us to grow.

We live in a world right now that wants to nail us down to one place and limited experience. 15-minute cities? I don’t think so, at least not for everyone, and certainly not if we are required to become slaves to that one tiny little corner of the world.

Anyway… the real point is, I think for many of us, our souls crave some adventure to one degree or another. Your essence is spirit, a soul that is infinite. How can it learn when it’s confined to a very narrow band of experience? Something to ponder.

(Here’s a related point of interest for you: Did you know that Thailand means “Land of the Free? Read more about the history here: Land of the Free: How Thailand Got Its Name)

Have a beautiful day. And when you go out walking, bicycling, or driving today, try to take a different route. Discover something new. 😉

Susan L Hart, 2023 / HartInspirations.com

Susan L Hart / Author