I am excited to announce that it is time to pre-order your copy of: One World: A Journey of Becoming, a book of original poetry and art that follows the events of the worldwide pandemic to current events of the day.
“…Janis’ deeply inspiring poetry, prose, and art are worth savoring. Janis creates from the heart, and this will touch your very soul.”
Mari Ann Graham, Director MSW Program, The University of St. Catherine
LEARN MORE about the book: https://janisdehler.com/river-spirit-books
Find an event to attend: https://janisdehler.com/events
Pre-order a book now to recieve by January 7, 2007: https://janisdehler.com/shop US customerts receive bonus gifts: a One World art and poetry bookmark and greeting card. My apologies to international orders through The Great British Bookshop. I won’t be able to accommodate the shipping of pre-order gifts.
It was rocky at times as I attempted to bring this inspiration into reality. Deaths, a stroke, a closing of my husbands place of business started by others 70 years ago, war, and tumultuous world events have been the back drop as I worked to stay the course and get it done.
It is a joy to hold the book in my hands. To flip the pages. To witness the beauty that was offered by those hired to help and guide me along the way.
My hope is for the reader to find a place to rest within the words and the visual art spaces; to drift into the heart space to ponder, finding a sense of renewal and gratitude, while experiencing the common ground we walk together in our one world.
A big thank you goes to the collector who decided to choose this painting as the one she wants for her home.
The inspiration for Into the Calm arose from my experience of hiking El Camino de Santiago in northern Spain in 2017. The sense of calm in this painting followed the experience of feeling as if I was crawling on my knees through shale, up high elevation, in cold and foggy weather. After shedding tears and processing many emotions that arose, a feeling of inner peace filled me.
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
I am not getting much time in the studio as book creation is taking the bulk of my days; it is all cyclical and I will find myself with paintbrush in hand once again.
Life is an endlessly creative experience, and we are shaping ourselves at every moment by every decision we make.
Today, as I reflect on my week to see what inspires me, I look to my grandson who received the highest Boy Scout award, Eagle Scout. Sev joined Cub Scouts at age 5 and today at age 18 he looks back at hundreds of hours dedicated to learning, serving others, donating time, helping his community, and leading others to develop skills in planning, preparing, and living with vision.
I bow to Sev and other young men and women like him who look to what can appear as a ‘sorry excuse for a world’ and rather than give up in despair, move forward with integrity, kindness, thoughtfulness, and creativity while living from their heart to heal and make whole.
Also at age 5, Sev received his first drum kit. Music fills his world, and he has dedicated many hours of learning and practice in becoming a talented drummer, adding keyboard, guitar, and vocals. He is off to college now and we send him off with love and joy and a greater hope for our world’s future.
“Rise up and adopt an eagle mentality. Challenge yourself to leave environments where people have accepted mediocrity. Surround yourself with people who are going places.”
Germany Kent
“You can run with turkeys, but it takes greater strength to fly with eagles.”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“Be an eagle instead of flocking like pigeons. Self-discovery will always be the highest type of knowledge in one’s life.”
Mwanandeke Kindembo
For Ongoing Resource List: Reading for Heart and Mind
While Sunday is my poem or prose offering, going forward, an occassional Wednesday will be my day to address art.
Today I offer a THANK YOU! to the collector who will be giving “Dancing Under One Sun” a new home when the show ends on August 31. She missed the opening so we met up to enjoy the exhibition one Friday afternoon and this painting called to her. 18 x 24 Mixed Media
There is still time to see and enjoy my art and poems.
Monday through Friday 9-3. The show closes August 31. Call the Carondelet office for any evening times available.
Dark clouds hover,
breezes shift,
sun’s rays ease
while rabbit skitters
to protection.
In the unexpected,
tensions rise,
plans change,
we scurry when
we thought we
could rest, thinking
this day
would last
forever.
The announcement comes,
our brains slow,
numb in thought:
to do, to think,
to plan, to support,
to be present, as
a loved one navigates,
through rocky terrain.
A child’s laughter
wakes us into now,
not when or if, but
the present, filled
with love and compassion,
and we realize
the sun never went anywhere,
was merely hidden
behind a dark cloud that, true
to its nature, drifts.
Losses felt,
not in a moment but
in the movement of time,
and change, and then
through the laughter of children,
we move, we live, we love.
“What we see, and like to see, is cure and change. But what we do not see and do not want to see is care, the participation in the pain, the solidarity in the suffering, the sharing in the experience of brokenness.”
HENRI NOWEN
“It is a serious thing to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.”
Mary Oliver
“Always hold fast to the present. Every situation, indeed every moment, is of infinite value, for it is the representative of a whole eternity.”
The One World series of paintings and written reflections in poetry and prose depict the inner images of the artist from early 2020 through 2022 — the start of the pandemic through the George Floyd murder, civil unrest, political upheaval, and the war in Ukraine.
All art works are for sale as well as greeting cards made from the images. Please contact me for more information on purchase.
The gallery is open most M-F from 9-3 but call Wisdom Ways for further times during evenings and weekends. 651-696-2794
Recently I happened to encounter a woman who had been a dear friend from forty years ago. We had parted as we began to find different paths and without meaning to, we hurt each other. A spark of joy was felt and seen in the other as we briefly met at a crowded event with an exchange of email opening the door for the two of us to later sit together and talk.
We remembered when we were young, new babies, marriages that began to feel the first frays of time, longings in our hearts that we could not yet understand, a sense of self that was still developing. We shared stories about our children, grandchildren, my spouse, the marriage she left, the adventures of a lifetime, as many and few we could name in this first visit. Then sharing what we each remembered of the hurt we felt. Both of us feeling and exclaiming, “I am so sorry, I did not know!”
Two women at peace and content with the paths chosen. Two women who, as we looked at the other, remembered a time that was rich, challenging, filled with hope and longing, fresh, alive, looking toward the future. Two women, who could also talk now of end-of-life thoughts. What will be let go of now, what has meaning now, and for the generations after.
The trees formed a canopy
a safe place to reveal
what was shrouded in
the shelter of the heart.
With the new shoots of spring
the Goldfinch, Cardinals, and
Chickadees asking for our attention,
we two old friends opened.
Sitting within her cadence
my heart opened to her song,
and she to mine. A trek through
mountains and valleys that challenged.
Births of joy
Losses grieved
Disappointments
Surprises
No bird, nor new spring flower
compared with the miracle
Of listening, without worry,
no words to plan.
Attentive, quiet,
the chapel of nature offering
absolution while gently moving us
along life’s way.
A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want.
David Whyte
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Courage and willingness to just go for it, whether it is a conversation or a spontaneous trip or trying new things that are scary – it is a really attractive quality.
Alanis Morissette
Ongoing Resource List – Reading for the Heart and the Mind
The Gene Keys: Emracing Your Higher Purpose by Riuchard Rudd
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Inform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Energy Speaks: Messages from Spirit on Living, Loving, and Awakening by Lee Harris
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create an New One by Dr. Joe Dispenza
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme
The Mastery of Love, Don Miguel Ruiz
Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao, by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, by Mirabai Starr
The Four Agreements: A Toltec Book of Wisdom by Don Miguel Ruiz
Mindfulness and Grief by Heather Stang
How We Live Is How We Die by Pema Chödron
The Bhagavad Gita, Translated by Eknath Easwaran
St Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation by Mirabai Starr
Wild Wisdom Edited by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Earth Prayers From Around The World, Ed by Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon
The Tao of Relationships by Ray Grigg
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue
Unconditional Love and Forgiveness by Edith R. Stauffer, Ph.D.
Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III
Art & Fear by David Bayless & Ted Orland
Quantum-Touch by Richard Gordon
The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Persons Path Through Depression by Eric Maisel, PhD
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris
Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living by Janis Amatuzio
Personal Power Through Awareness by Sanaya Roman
Violence & Compassion by His Holiness the Dahlai Lama
Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Devotions by Mary Oliver
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue
Meditations From the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison
The House of Belonging: poems by David Whyte
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Soul an Archaeology Edited by Phil Cousineau
A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield
Listening Point by Sigurd Olson
I Sit Listening to the Wind by Judith Duerk
Dancing Moons by Nancy Wood
The Soul of Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks
Keep Going by Joseph M. Marshall III
Arriving at your own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
The Hidden Secrets of Water by Paolo Consigli
Conquest of Mind by Eknath Easwaran
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) by Brene Brown
Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Unattended Sorrow by Stephen Levine
Joy in Loving, Mother Theresa
The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Let Your LIfe Speak by Parker Palmer
Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Essence of the Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran
Welcoming the Unwelcome by Pema Chodron
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through The Ways Of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson
This morning’s waking gift was the pink horizon anticipation of the sun along with the crescent moon with a reflection on mother Superior. It reminded me of St. Francis prayer, Canticle of the Sun.
….Praised be You God for all Your creatures,
especially Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my God, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair….
