We recently connected with Heather Hope and have shared our conversation below.

Heather , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

One of the biggest risks I have taken is joining the Peace Corps to serve in Mali, West Africa from 2001-2003. I hadn’t even heard of Mali when I learned I was being sent there. What I found out before going was that it was one of the five poorest countries in the world that was facing desertification due to people collecting the trees for fires to cook their meals.

Despite Mali being one of the poorest countries, I quickly discovered that they were much happier than many Americans. It took me quite a while to figure out how this was possible. I concluded that Malians have one thing that most Americans do not have- something that we don’t even remember having. Community. The idea of “all for one and one for all”. If you ask any Malian what they would do if they won the lottery, they would all say, “Have a huge party and invite the whole village and celebrate”. When they have a good rainy season and good crops, they all eat. When they don’t, they don’t.

It was such an absolute blessing and privilege to live among them. I have never felt so safe before or since. Despite the fact I had no electricity and no running water, I was abundantly wealthy in friendship and community connections. I will always be grateful for the risk I took, all the lessons I learned and all the friendships I made.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am the founder and director of One Love: Holistic Health Community Cooperative. The skills and knowledge I bring to this position are a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling and extensive training as a Shamanic Energy Practitioner and Reiki Master. One Love is my SOULution to restoring Heaven on Earth. The mission of One Love is “Cooperatively Creating Community centered around holistic health to celebrate life, bless our Divine Creator and restore Heaven on Earth. One Love incorporates holistic health wellness centers and intentional living communities under the umbrella of a religion. The primary premise of our Religion is our God & Goddess given right to free will for all beings. People may choose to utilize their free will to utilize sacred plant teachers, maintain their divine blueprint or whatever their heart desires (as long as it does not violate the free will of another). I have made a few YouTube videos to describe the gameplan. We are welcoming new members to be part of the SOULution!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One Love had a physical location in Menasha, Wisconsin from 2017 to 2020. Our experience with our landlords was unfortunate and our lease terminated in Feb 2020. I prayed extensively around this time for another space because I did not want to close our doors. It was heartbreaking. Then within a few weeks Covid hit and everything was closed down. I saw that it was absolutely divine timing and despite my sincere prayers, Spirit knew best. I took the down time to reflect on what worked at One Love 1.0 and what could have been improved and I set to work to recreate One Love 2.0 as a better business model, one that was more inclusive and interactive between all members. I did tons of research about the cooperative business model, how to create spiritual communities and also the problems that we face globally. All of this knowledge helped me to grow back stronger.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Perhaps the best book I have read about Community building was “Community, the structure of belonging” by Peter Block. There are so many brilliant quotes and empowering concepts in this book. One that really resonated was the idea that when we focus on solving problems we drain everyone’s energy. When we focus on creating solutions we expand and grow our energy. That’s why part of One Love’s mission statement is to “celebrate life”.

He expresses many times that the top down model of leadership is outdated, now everyone needs a voice. More than that people need to be reminded that their voices, thoughts and beliefs are not only welcome, they are essential to the solution. Additionally we need to have leaders trained in the art of calling forth people’s voices and also spaces which are designed in a way that everyone can be seen and heard by everyone else.

Peter Block stated, “I discovered that resolution of conflict comes from people being able to express their own feelings and their own needs in the face of another. Making agreements and setting goals without building upon the feelings of the parties involved is empty, because it does not consider the vulnerabilities of our own humanity.”

So many great, empowering and inspiring quotes from Peter Block:

“What worked yesterday is the gilded cage of tomorrow.”

“We must act as if our institutions are ours to create, our learning is ours to define, our leadership we seek is ours to become.”

“The kind of future we are primarily interested in is the way in which communities create a wider sense of belonging among their citizens.”

“Our work becomes to simply bring the gifts of those on the margin into the center” Peter Block

Contact Info:

• Website: https://onelove.as.me/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneLoveLIghtworkers https://www.facebook.com/heather.hofacker.5/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/q-sImZBKnoE?si=C42t0ul9LDIhtnyF https://youtu.be/XVxUirBGwO0?si=GFBLn6E_AxkcEP1W
• Other: https://onelove.as.me/

Image Credits
A.j. Gulledge