Sacred Ground

Fiercely I protect
the place within
that cradles my
brightest dreams
and deepest truths,
that precious locus,
where my soul
whispers wisdom
of lessons learned,
eternally echoing
across all of time.

My heartaches,
and yes, heartbreaks,
over many lifetimes
hammered and
tempered the line,
beyond which now
none are allowed
to trample upon,
or desecrate my
hard won ground, my
sanctuary inviolate.

Caves are Sacred

And this is a repost from August 1, 2021, on preserving your own inner sacred ground:

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.

“Your sacred place is where you can find yourself, over and over again. ~ Joseph Campbell

Rejuvenate

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

Happy

True, real, enduring,
happiness is being at peace
with who we are.

Sacred Ground, Rejuvenate, and Happy are excerpts from Soul Journey: The Poetry of Life. Currently it is offered as a free download here.

The haikus are also included in my Hart Haiku Vol. 1 collection from my original blog. A collection of the 100 best on photo art cards is just 99 cents, for sale here.

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All writings © Susan L Hart 2024

End the Egomania

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The cause of much of human misery in the world has not changed throughout history, simply the details. Our political leaders are blatantly out of control, and the thoughts here (a repost from January 8, 2022)) bear repeating. Now it’s not a pandemic that plagues us, but their incessant need to pour (our) money into starting a World War if they possibly can. Here’s the post from 2022:

“File this under “Things We Became Really Sick Of in the Past Two Years”. Your list may differ from mine in some ways, but it’s highly probable we share “the out-of-control egos of too many of our world leaders”. We could give them the benefit of the doubt, I suppose. Perhaps there were no other really important world problems for the past 730+ days, which gave them lots of extra time to focus on world health.

But are you not noticing that even as any significant health threat diminishes, their zeal to control you is diametrically increasing? Does that feel right to you? We might conclude from the observation that just like the bully in the school yard, they are addicted to their power. As George Orwell said, “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”

In a civilized society, how can bullying tactics be deemed acceptable? The answer to that is simple. School yard bullies grow up to be dictators, and society is increasingly no longer civilized by many definitions of the word.

This I know will sound overly simplistic, but call it a little thought experiment. What if we all just walked away and did not participate in their game? It is increasingly evident that the hierarchical model for society and politics is failing us. This type of system is conducive inevitably to corruption, and in a way we can’t blame the riffraff (but yes we can!) that bubbled to the top. Time and again in history, we have agreed to it.

Political leaders everywhere, take note! We are not your chattel to be toyed with recklessly. You were elected to serve the people, not the other way around. We are moving on now to build a new paradigm, one of integrity founded on sound moral principles, cooperation, industry and productivity, respect, and a higher spiritual vision. The likes of you will not be welcome at our table.”

Please take time to ready my satire story The Day Humanity Decided. It’s a free read online here in PDF format. You can also get the EPUB and MOBI formats free (along with another ebook) when you subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Feel free to share the story with friends (but not for personal profit). Thank you.

The Game

Hierarchy empire,
kings and queens
in days of yore
ruled the peasants
with iron fist,
wrung the gold
from slaves’ sweat,
their inherent
birthrights stolen
away.

“That was in
ancient times,”
I hear your retort,
but no, wake up!
See the deceit,
game is in play,
want-to-be kings
shroud their decrees,
money buys power,
little pawns weep.

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Humanity’s Dance

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Humanity’s a
wallflower, sidelined,
waiting for a dance.

Worn shoes, shabby frock,
her sad eyes have seen too much.
“Who would dance with that?”

The crowd parties on,
make-busy taking selfies,
tries to ignore her.

She’s irritating,
that girl waiting for her chance,
hoping for a dance.

Overindulgence,
the laughter now rings hollow,
the clock strikes brittle.

Someone looks over,
overcome by compassion,
can bear it no more.

Extending their hand,
Humanity stands to dance.
(Crowd’s silent snicker.)

Slowly, gracefully,
wisdom learned, eons shine in
Humanity’s moves.

The tired crowd watches.
Perhaps there’s something to that
girl who wants to dance.

Mesmerized, new thoughts
energize the soul-weary,
move them to the floor.

Humanity’s dream!
She just wanted the chance to
teach them how to dance.

Humanity’s Dance is from Humanity’s Lament. | Download it free.

What will you do the day they tell us that we aren’t allowed to grow our own food? My satirical short story explores this question in a humorous way. It starts with “Once upon a time”, as all so-called fairy tales rooted in some reality do…

“Once upon a time (actually, many times in history), there was a little man who ruled his kingdom with an iron fist. His birth name was Tyrannicus Rex, but he liked to go by “Tyrannicus Rex, Your Royal Highness, Supreme Ruler of The Land of Small”.

Tyrannicus did not require that people also state his number in the long ancestral line of Tyrannicus Rexes. After all, he did not want his name to be unnecessarily long or cumbersome for his subjects to say. It was just one of the countless ways he showed magnanimous consideration for The People of the Land of Small.

In actual fact, no one could remember how or why or when the family came about. The last Tyrannicus Rex Family Record Book had apparently burned in a mysterious fire about twenty years back, just after Tyrannicus’s father passed away and left his son to rule the kingdom.

An old-timer of the kingdom had heard a rumor that the fires happened regularly, always apparently just after the last King died. No one really knew if that was true, but it apparently it was a Rex family curse.

Everything in the Land of Small was, of course, small. The Tyrannicus Rexes preferred it that way, as they were all quite small in stature, so anything too big threatened their self-confidence. In the Land of Small, it was all small houses, small food, small entertainment… you get the picture. That is, with one exception.

There was a very tall (one might say gargantuan) ancient-looking tree that stood smack dab in the center of the kingdom’s main square. This tree definitely did not fit the royal requisite of small. It was so perfectly positioned that there was hardly a soul in The Land of Small who had not seen or heard tell of that tree at one time or another. It was legendary.

Tyrannicus hated that tree with a vengeance. He and the other Tyrannicus Rexes before him had tried cutting it down, digging it out, and burning it, but that darned tree refused to go away. Trying to get rid of the tree proved to be a bad plan, because the more the Tyrannicus Rexes tried to remove it, the more The People of the Land of Small noticed the tree…”

Read more of The Day Humanity Decided in PDF format online here.

Receive it in other formats (EPUB and MOBI) and receive a 2nd free ebook when subscribe for my newsletter.

Eternally

Just a Stone’s Throw Away

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Our love was
so strong that
we were just
a stone’s throw
from reconciliation,

but the stones
already slung had
so badly broken
the glass house
of our trust that

fragments seeded
a stone wall over
which no stone
could ever be
thrown again.

We were so close,
and yet so far.

Recently a friend posted her dismay that she had been attacked for being too nice. That’s right, too nice! I suppose the world has arrived at a place where we must always choose a side, no matter the issue. If you’re too nice, clearly you’re not on the side of the haters.

Beginning in 2020, suddenly we were deluged with extreme fear over disease. But the worst disease of all may extinguish humanity in its entirety, if we don’t put a stop to it.

The disease is called “my ego need to be right”. As long as we force each other to choose sides and then attack each other for those choices, there will never be any meeting ground for healing and building. We will constantly be stuck in a state of tearing down, doomed in a fatal downward spiral to a black void.

Imagine a time in future when aliens visit Earth, a beautiful place lush with flora and fauna, but strangely void of other life forms. And in their exploration of this lovely planet, they come upon a huge headstone that reads, “Here lies Humanity. Sadly, they killed each other with their need to be right”.

Personally this is not a future vision that I want to see manifest. As the poet Rumi said,

“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.”

Yes, we could make the choice to create a meeting place. Imagine everyone with a unified commitment to constantly see, evaluate, and discuss many points of view, without judgement or a need to “have it all my way” or attack.

It would be a beginning… We’re just a stone’s throw away from getting it right. But first we must stop throwing stones at each other.

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Hart Inspirations

Susan L Hart, Author