Heart and Mind: A Journey Beyond the Surface
In this poem, “The Same Old Story,” I address the timeless tug-of-war between heart and mind. This isn’t just any old story—it’s a narrative that poets, mystics, and psychologists have been chewing on for ages. The heart, our emotional core, is painted as this ever-hungry force, while the mind is like a relentless hunter, always on the prowl for answers it can never quite pin down. This dance between feeling and thinking isn’t just personal; it’s universal, weaving through the fabric of human experience.
Podcast Discussion: The Same Old Story
The Same Old Story
The story’s the same
The story’s the same
The heart ever hungers
while mind hunts the game
A heart once young as grass in the spring
dries with the lessons a harsh world can bring
Childhood’s innocence ran through the fields
and suffered the trauma that judgment yields
As we grew up and followed directions
spontaneity died from others’ inspections
The story’s the same
The story’s the same
The heart ever hungers
while mind hunts the game
Now that we’re molded like a lump of old clay
our insides turn brittle as we bake day by day
Our face is chiseled in a permanent frown
once green pastures have faded to brown
The body’s a sieve full of old holes
and life a collection of meaningless roles
The story’s the same
The story’s the same
The heart ever hungers
while mind hunts the game
When life is a cup emptied by grief
the heart is readied for famine relief
A single tear falls on parched desert ground
prompted by childhood’s shocking rebound
Pain is a flood like rains in the spring
swelling the heart as new life they bring
The story’s the same
The story’s the same
The heart never hungers
while mining its claim.
John Harper
The Heart’s Longing and the Mind’s Chase
The poem’s portrayal of the heart’s yearning might remind you of Rumi, who once said:
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
It’s like the heart isn’t just hungry for love—starving for that lost innocence and spontaneity left behind in childhood. The line about the heart being “once young as grass in the spring” but later “dried with the lessons a harsh world can bring” captures that bittersweet shift from the carefree days of youth to the jaded grind of adulthood.
If you study psychology, Carl Jung’s idea of the “wounded healer” comes to mind. Jung thought the scars we bear from childhood—the trauma of judgment, as the poem puts it—aren’t just sources of pain. They’re also keys to unlocking deeper self-awareness and healing. Despite life’s harsh lessons, the heart still longs for something more than the roles and masks the mind cooks up to make sense of everything.
Stuck on Repeat
“The story’s the same” is the chorus you can’t get out of your head, highlighting how this heart-mind struggle is a looping. But here’s the kicker: this repetition isn’t just about spinning wheels. It’s about the ongoing rhythm of life itself. In the Diamond Approach®, a modern spiritual path, this endless cycle is part of the soul’s journey to actual realization. The mind keeps hunting for a way out of suffering, but it’s only when the heart stops looking outside and embraces its hunger that absolute satisfaction comes.
Shifting from a “permanent frown” and “meaningless roles” to a heart that “never hungers while mining its claim” shows this transformation. It’s like moving from despair to a deeper, more peaceful understanding—from the mind’s frantic search for answers to the heart’s openness to what is. This echoes the wisdom of surrender in many spiritual traditions—letting go of control and letting life do its thing.
The Unlikely Teacher
Pain plays a significant role in this poem, acting as an unlikely teacher. The line “Pain is a flood like rains in the spring, swelling the heart as new life they bring” hints that challenging suffering can lead to something beautiful. Viktor Frankl, a psychologist, explored this idea, too, arguing that finding meaning in suffering is a big part of being human.
Mystics like St. John of the Cross also wrote about the “dark night of the soul,” a period of intense inner struggle that can ultimately lead to a deeper connection with the divine. The poem ends with the heart “never hungers while mining its claim,” suggesting that the real treasure isn’t something the mind can hunt down. Instead, it’s found in the heart’s embrace of its depths.
As the Katha Upanishad puts it, “The Self-existent made the senses outward-going: they go to the world of things. But he who seeks what is within, turning his gaze inward, finds the Self.” It’s a nod to the idea that true fulfillment isn’t out there—it’s within.
A Nudge to Embrace the Heart’s Wisdom
“The Same Old Story” nudges us to look at our lives and how we might be stuck in the same old heart-mind patterns. Maybe the fulfillment we’re all chasing isn’t something out there but something waiting to be uncovered within. By tuning into the heart’s wisdom and allowing ourselves to feel—even the pain—we might break free from the mind’s endless hunting and stumble upon a deeper, more lasting peace.
Ultimately, I suggest that the heart’s hunger isn’t something to shy away from. It’s a guidepost pointing us toward our inner life’s rich, untapped depths. While the story might be the same, how we engage with it can lead to a transformation as profound as the change from winter to spring.