Waikoloa Sun 8 x 10 Acrylic
We celebrate a life and commemorate a birth as circling the sun carries on. We dance to the drum as the full moon rises, as she continues to revolve beyond. The orbs that open a day, then light our night, as we stand with both feet on the ground, our home, going round and round and round, trusting synchrony in our sphere. A song of life floats in the air, a chorus of love and good cheer, blessings from family and friends acknowledging another year. We raise a toast, eat our cake, remember the ancestors who walked on. They planted seeds of hope and acts of war, and forgot like us that our life is a speck, pulsing with moments that resound. We remember the ones dying this day. We welcome those born into now. People who complete their trip, and babes who emerge to begin. With each Happy Birthday a reminder, a pause. Now, blow out a candle. Offer a wish.
“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”
Dr. Seuss
“There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.”
William Barclay
“I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.”
Steven Wright
Ongoing Resource List: Reading for the Heart and the Mind
- 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
Janis Dehler 