Tag Archives: travel

Moving Beyond

When will humanity choose to start seeing the bigger picture, and move beyond all the pettiness and squabbling that keeps our reality small?

We tell ourselves that we are evolved and civilized, but are we? I wonder if other life forms (that which we call “alien”) are watching, and just shaking their heads. Perhaps they see we are capable of so much more, but we just won’t quite allow ourselves to claim and live our magnificence…

Of What We are Made

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We are living in times of revelation. When I look back at the big picture of the past two years, I am struck by self-serving agendas and unabashed profit-making as the collective global population was made to feel so fearful. Now just as that threat seems to be easing, we are faced with the possibility of nuclear war.

We look at our leaders in wonderment, that a person or people who supposedly have our best interests at heart might push a button(s) that could kill millions, or maybe even billions on the planet. Maybe the button will be pushed, and maybe it won’t. Right now we live with that uncertainty, and the knowledge that innocent lives are already being destroyed.

What is certain is that the chess game being played by world leaders is, as I speak, causing untold damage to the future welfare of humanity. As only one example, if the sanctions continue, it will have a devastating effect on an already fragile and inadequate world food supply. We face mass starvation if this craziness continues.

After they have wrought whatever damage they deem necessary to accomplish their own agendas, we will be left to clean up the messes of the ones we put in charge. There will need to be a complete re-evaluation of what life means. The things we thought were important will fall away, as we try to figure out how to build a better civilization.

The question then will not be what any of us can do to be a “success” within the old definition of a crumbled society. (In Western society, that too often means material accumulation.) Rather, the question will be what each of us can contribute to heal and rebuild our world, and make it a place we would feel good about passing on to our children and grandchildren.

We can no longer afford to leave our futures in the hands of these others. Ultimately we have to claim, and then dig in and build, the world we want. In the doing of that, we will discover of what we are really made.

This is the wake up call humanity has been waiting for, and I predict that we will astound ourselves!

State of Grace

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There are several definitions of grace, an obvious one being elegance or refinement in the physical state, particularly in movement. The woman in the picture (for me) personifies a certain physical grace. Her eyes are closed, seemingly in meditation, and I can easily imagine she might also fit another definition of grace. That is, “courteous goodwill.”

Courteous goodwill. This state of grace seems to be sadly falling by the wayside, as various factions in society bicker, squabble, and attack each other. It’s fine to have another point of view, but sometimes the behavior reminds me of children when they don’t get their way. In the past two years it seems that there has been a rise in bullying, shaming and coercing others psychologically. Where is the grace?

Those who bully others to get their way are not service to others, even though they may use narrative to paint themselves as such. They are service to self. They simply want the world to be “their way”, because they believe they have all the answers. Well, in a world of 8 billion people, how can that be true? There are many viewpoints on this planet.

A state of grace comes from a place of allowance, that others might have another way of being. It also is rooted in a true caring about other people. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, grace flows from love. Achieving a state of grace in one’s self moves us to a real place of service to others.

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Living a Fulfilling Life

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Life is about so much more than just surviving. However, as of late we are increasingly being conditioned to believe that is all that is important. Personally, my concern is that the longer we drift from our hold on what really living life means, we will forget.

What does life mean to you? Do you take stock of what makes life feel fulfilling? Certainly our dreams, big and small, have taken a real beating. We must keep a firm grasp on those and not let them go. Our dreams are what shape our futures.

Whatever anyone may tell you to the contrary, you have the right to live your dream.

Susan L Hart / Author