Tag Archives: social commentary

Reclaiming Ourselves

What humankind builds inevitably crumbles and turns to dust. Nature being centered in some higher power of the universe, quietly takes over and continues in its eternal renewal and expansion. Total human civilizations have been built and destroyed while Nature watches.

Perhaps it is time we took a cue from Nature. We are no longer centered in our eternal natural rhythms; they are being overwritten with man-made programming. We think we own our smart phones, but more often than not, they end up owning us. Next time you’re out in a public place, look around you. Generally speaking, more faces are pointing down towards those tiny screens than are looking up and around at the world.

We are organic beings, not machines, and yet those little screens have quite a scary hold on humankind. Technology has its place and can be very helpful to us, but if Nature teaches us anything, it’s about balance.

How do we reclaim ourselves, so that we can live in balanced harmony with our natural habitat (the Earth) and our machines?

© Susan L Hart 2025

On Gardens & Caves

Leave a reply

My garden is a refuge for me, a respite from the troubles of the world. Do you have a refuge? Men often call it their “cave” and I will share with you a post from April 2021 (yes, when we were in the thick of the pandemic, and all going crazy.) Finishing with a new poem “Garden”.

Today I tip my hat to the wisdom of men, and one in particular who taught me (with much head bashing on my part) that “caves are sacred”.

Do you have a designated place where you can go to claim a quiet interlude, far away from the fray and anger of the world? Our modern world is always a noisy place, but the volume got turned up full blast in 2020. The mental discouragement and emotional processing of negativity just feel like too much to bear some days.

People often equate the word sacred with church, but have you considered that the term should encompass protecting your own internal landscape? If you do not honor and protect your own peace of mind, if you do not recognize that it comes first and foremost, sooner or later the current craziness of life will take its toll.

If you have not already done so, establish a sacred place where you can find some quiet and cultivate peace within yourself, where you can hear your own voice.

I have noticed that men (at least the ones I have known) are particularly good at this. They call it “going to my cave”. When the big problems feel overwhelming, going to a quiet place and working in solitude on a smaller solvable project allows them a) time to process their thoughts, and b) restores their sense of mastery over their environment. They emerge feeling more in balance.

On a humorous note, a girl friend’s husband emerged from his cave on one of my visits, sporting a T-shirt that read, “What happens in the shop stays in the shop”.

Hmm… It did make me wonder what exorcisms those walls have seen. 🙂

© Susan L Hart 2025

Wishing you a beautiful Sunday. Please share my work. 🙂

Embracing Our Origins

2 Replies

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” (Henry David Thoreau)

Just as Thoreau apparently did, I feel very connected to nature and the Earth. How about you? If I had my druthers, I would spend the rest of my days exploring her wild places.

I also love the below quote by Edward Abbey, notable American author and essayist. I do believe when we connect to nature, we feel the pulse of our origins. We somehow got this idea that taller buildings and more technology define us as more civilized. I would tend to disagree… It feels to me like society is becoming more uncivilized by the minute.

When we reconnect to the Earth and respect her in a way that she deserves to be cherished, it will be a big step towards creating a healthier, more fulfilled and truly civilized society.

The haiku Blink is an excerpt from my tribute to nature, Our Beautiful Earth, now in its 2nd Edition

Wishing you a beautiful weekend, bright with happy things. 🙂 Now I must bid you adieu, because Izzy and I have some gardening to do.

Subscribe for my newsletter, and receive The Turquoise Heart free.

© Susan L Hart 2025 / HartInspirations.com

My post Tuesday on HumanitysFuture.net: The Mass Dream: Whose dream is it?

The Journey & Your Worth

7 Replies

Do you realize your true worth in the world? Experience and learning, love, and the people in your life are the gold. Your soul is the gold. YOU are the gold.

We live in a world that prays to the almighty money god. For many people abundance means having loads of it in the bank, so that they can buy any THING they want. Money = happiness, or so they think. But is this true abundance? What have you invested in today that would still be with you tomorrow if your money disappeared overnight?

At the end of your life, in your soul’s journey and looking back from your deathbed, the things you accumulated will mean nothing. They will be simply material objects that accompanied you on your journey through life.

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.

Excerpts from Becoming Bigger: In a world that wants to keep you small, and Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. Both are free to download at the links.

Thank you for reading. 🙂