I’ve decided to build a Circle of Love around Zinnia, the same kind of circle I’m feeling from all over the country, apart from dogs. It’s a much bigger idea than me or my dog, or obedience training.

But I believe it is not only possible, I feel it happening everywhere. And I think Zinnia is blessed in a certain way to generate love.

We talk all the time about housebreaking, sitting and staying, but the real power of dogs is in love they bring us and inspire in us.

Dogs taught me how to love, and kept my heart alive until I understood this and began to heal and found Maria.

Zinnia, like Lenore before her, is a pure Love Dog, she is all about love, and her very presence in a room shows me that her therapy work is already underway, I’m just the person who brings her places. She has a profound impact on the people she meets and who follow her on my blog.

She is a joy spreader, smiles and laughter go wherever she goes. And isn’t that what therapy work is all about? She has a calm but very strong presence. She is different.

We stopped at Jean’s Place today to have breakfast and then move on to the supermarket in Vermont to get some groceries. We’re having guests over for dinner Sunday evening and I’m cooking.

Zinnia sits quietly in the back seat, sometimes for hours. Like Red, she is always quiet in the car, no matter how long the trip.

She sleeps or just looks out the window. I am able to bring her everywhere and meet all kinds of people. Jean’s Place is friendly but loud and crowded.  I wasn’t sure how she would react going inside.

But I told Robin that Zinnia – who turns out to be a great car traveler – was in the car and she insisted that I bring her in.

When I did, the restaurant went a little mad, people getting off of their stools and tables and rushing over to meet her. Zinnia acted as if she grew up there. Oddly, I feel the same way.

I saw these people in the restaurant, ordinary people, hard workers, no one rich or powerful or flashy, lighting up their souls when they met this dog. So many smiles, we were quite divided and connected in that building.

There was no polarization around Zinnia.

Robin took the leash and walked Zinnia around the restaurant, and she met everybody who worked there or ate there, while we had our breakfast. Robin, like Zinnia, has a great heart.

The idea inside of me began to grow as I watched the two of them and saw the response in the restaurant.

Zinnia has no fear of strange places, she said hello to a dozen or more people, and then came and sat by my side while Maria and I finished eating. Her calm and her great heart are two very dominant traits in this dog.

It was an important experience for me.  I got emotional, I felt a stirring.

I had this very clear and strong impulse about Zinnia and Godmothers.

Friday, Sue Silverstein from Bishop Maginn High School became Zinnia’s first Godmother.

Saturday Robin became her second Godmother.

These women are different, they do very different work, they live in very different places. But they both have great and loving hearts.

There will be more.

An idea I’ve been nursing secretly sort of mushroomed out in my head and my heart and became clear.  It wants to come out into the light.

I’ve always had this idea – well beyond training and food, etc – of building a Circle Of Love around Zinnia, perhaps the most important training I could possibly give her.

I’m going to ask the people I know with the greatest hearts – most are women, I think – to be her Godmothers and help to form a Circle of Love around her.

Just a short while ago, this idea would have seemed like madness to me.

But I believe a great Circle of Love is forming all around the country, it’s not something polls or pundits would see or feel or care about. It is being formed by people who care about other people and practice empathy and compassion rather than hatred and division.

Increasingly, that’s what seems to me to divide us. Empathy versus grievance and anger.

The Army Of Good is nothing but a Circle Of Love, and there are many thousands more like it, sprouting up like spring flowers.

Just wait and see what they can do. I hope some of the Army Of Good warriors will choose to be a Godmother to Zinnia, no matter where they are or what they do.

Love is love.

We have a lot to build on.

This Circle Of Love, around me, and already around Zinnia, will work through the magic of this dog, who is special in different ways.

And I’ve already seen this, Zinnia is a force for love – the more she is loved, the more she loves, and the more she loves, the more she is loved. That’s how a circle forms.

This is what she’s about. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll seek out people of great heart and ask them to be her Godmothers or Godfathers.  A great heart is the only criterion.

We’ll do great things together, and not only at the Mansion and Bishop Maginn.

There is already a great love for Zinnia in many hearts, including mine, as is obvious.

I look forward to seeing it grow and deepen around this dog. A Circle Of Love.