love – Janis Dehler

We The People

We ran in fear.
We towed the line.
As consciousness rises
we stand in truth
of who we are,
no longer choosing
from what is hidden
in shadow,
no longer following
blindly in darkness,
we rise to heart’s bidding—
the All, unfolding before us,
that calls us to live
in simplicity and love,
as we learn to believe,
what is good for all 
is good for me.

(Image: From the One World Series, We All Belong by Janis Dehler)

“The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you’re trying to design for. Leadership is exactly the same thing – building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help.”

-David M. Kelley

“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

-Margaret Mead

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

-Voltaire

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Laugh Out Loud

Take a break,
grab your bestie, 
go outside, 
lay on the grass,
look at the clouds 
and giggle out loud.
There’s one that looks
like an elephant,
one a goose.
Then giggle some more 
until you can’t stop laughing 
and your bladder’s going to burst. 
Remember those days?
When you laughed 
with abandon?
When you laughed so hard
you started to cry?
We need it now—
our joy and our tears,
from the heart,
the tender heart
that is ready to break.
Break open!
Live the connection,
friend to friend,
us to clouds.
The heart knows 
the One. 
The One in the All.
Where love is all One.

“The highest state is laughter.”

– Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.”

– William James

“Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection.”

– Jakob Smirnoff

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Reflection

I stand at water’s edge,
with trees above, 
mirrored below.
Like friendship—
a reflection seen,
yet not the same. 
Conveys who I am, 
similar, yet different.
At once solid, yet fluid.
Challenging, yet joyful.
Colorful, yet peaceful.
Encouraging,
playful,
inspiring.
Friendship allows.
Connection to the heart. 
Flows on to thee

“Life is but a mirror looking back at us, uncovering the layers we’ve neglected to see.”

-Bayu Prihandito

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”

-Thomas Merton

“The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within us.”

Gabrielle Bernstein

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Waiting for Bloom

We wait patiently for peony to bloom,
to open and shine in all her glory.
Might she feel the excitement
in being all that she is,
the anticipation as stem grows stronger— 
stands taller reaching for the sun.
We too wait for blossoming, 
not always patient,
wanting to be all that we are.
We forget that each moment of 
loving and being arrives at the next,
until next is lived, and then next, 
and on until our heart petals open in joy
and we arrive within to all that is

“How does the meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.“

William Wordsworth

“If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?“

Khalil Gibran

“May my soul bloom in love for all existence.“

Rudolf Steiner

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Choices We Make


We walk with fear:
We believe; not enough.
We feel; too much.
We worry; how will we?
We cry; when will it?
We dread; who will it be?
We tremble; what will happen?

We walk with love:
Abundance appears.
Joy fills our being.
Trust is our path.
Silence is our friend.
Beauty abounds. 
Connection rises in being.
Choice is our freedom.

“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is fear.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“If you knew the secret of life, you too would choose no other companion but love.”

— Rumi

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”

— Nelson Mandela

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Spring Cleanse

spring rains foster growth
polished windows allow light
cleansed hearts emit love

“Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.”
Parker Palmer

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Buddha

“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting.”
William Shakespeare

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Flow Like The River

With body tired, spirit is filled. This week of book launch events has deeply touched a place in me—one of connection, love, humility, and awe—the oneness that we are.

I leave you with these words from my poem, “Come To The Water”:

…We are the miracle. Can we not see it—in each other?

Each of us filled with a wellspring.

We are all that valuable.



Come then to the water. Come home within.

Come to each other. Let us flow like the river.

Forgiving. Blessing. Refreshing.



Come to the water.

“Love is the greatest refreshment in life.”
Pablo Picasso

When We Gather


They arrive at noon 
bearing food and gifts,
bringing love and light 
within their hearts 
for all to share, 
whether laughter or tears,
cookies or bread, 
it’s all spread about, as
we mark forty-seven years
of opening our door
on this night, to celebrate 
the birth of Jesus, 
our family tradition. 

Some of us are church goers, 
others do not partake, 
but the truth of this is, 
it matters not, 
as we celebrate the light, 
shining within each heart. 
Some days it dims as 
the weight of loss pushes down, 
but we know it is here,
as we spread hugs all around.

Our oldest was two 
when it all began; 
now, new little boys toddle 
in laughter with visions of play. 
We lost a generation 
through these years, 
yet time brings new babes 
as life’s story gets told. 

The light of solstice, 
the light of the Christ, 
the light found in Buddha, 
and Amma, a Hindu saint,
whether the Tao, 
or the Bhagavad-Gita, 
the Tanakh, the Bible, 
the words from the Koran, 
or of our dear mother earth, 
I am formed by it all, 
in truth profound.

What rests at the core: 
love, compassion, wisdom, 
and giving as we are able. 
For me, the true message 
for us to gain.
Welcome arms open to all, 
each in their own spirit found.
May our oneness be proclaimed, 
at this, our blessed table. 

Blessings,
Janis

In This House

That house I used to live in,
the one that eluded me
as things do when you try to forget,
or simply don’t remember,
felt lacking, uncertain,
incomplete, like—
What’s in that closet?

Such a jumble,
I could not tell you.
I did not seem to be
a part of it, nor it to me,
yet it’s where life happened:
birth and death, joy, and sadness,
memories made for a lifetime,
the joy of children and delight.

Today, in this house, I breathe, 
feel comfort and recognize each corner—
each room in accord.
This house I now live in feels whole,
part of a creation, mine, and 
not mine. Like the earth places 
where I feel I belong, as I 
merely travel through.

“On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.”
Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

“We all have a sacred calling that has very little to do with what we accomplish in this world. It is the calling of the sacred — the quiet pull of an implicit wholeness within each of us that awaits our conscious recognition.”
John J. Prendergast, The Deep Heart, Our Portal to Presence

“By psychological work we are changed. In spiritual work we are revealed: we manifest our inner wholeness in conscious daily life.^”
David Richo, How to be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual Integration

For Ongoing Resoure List: Reading for Heart and Mind

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We Remembered

We remembered another heart that beat with love,
for lovers, family, and friends, then stopped.

We memorialized, celebrated, laughed, and cried.
We remembered how you made us laugh, 
how you listened, taught, played, and prayed; how 
you gave of yourself and rejoiced in life.

We, the ones left with hearts that beat with love,
for lovers, family, and friends, encircle each other,
then wonder deep within: 

Is my life making a difference?
Am I offering myself to the world?
Am I one who is bringing joy?

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
George Eliot

“Take stock of who we are, and what we have, and then use it for good.”
Ann Napalitano, Dear Edward

“Live for yourself and you will live in vain; live for others, and you will live again.”
Bob Marley

Ongoing Resource List: Reading for Heart and 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