Gardens of Inspiration

Chas Raws from The Friends Quarterly (a Quaker publication) describes the Royal Horticultural Society's annual show at Tatton Park featuring an award winning vision garden by Dori Miller and son Howard of a World Without Torture:

"Thousands of visitors took the time to walk through its high security fences, past the rubble of a bombed site with an ecological succession of plants, representing the recovery of land as a metaphor for the healing of human bodies and minds after torture.  They could pause to listen to the subdued voices of victims of torture before emerging into a garden of predominantly white flowers with a statue releasing a dove.  They took away with them leaflets and seed packets bearing the message of 360 years of Quakers sowing seeds of peace and reconciliation and 36 years of working for the abolition of torture." (the Quaker Abolition of Torture Group was established in 1979).

The Iroquois Tree of Peace representing the Six Nations of the Native American Iroquois Confederacy.  The Great Law of Peace inspired founding fathers of the United States and Canada.

Paul Rousselle of Peace Mala's Youth Group worked with Pam Evans, director of Peace Mala in Wales to mark the ten year anniversary of Peace Mala and its vision of global religious unity through youth.  Representatives of different faiths were invited who had worked together on the Peace Mala Gower Pilgrimage for World Peace (the historical sacred sites of Gower).  The Tree of Peace ceremony took place within a prepared Circle in Coed Bwlardd, near the Black Mountains and Carreg Cenin Castle of Carmarthenshire.  A local oak sapling was donated and dedicated to be planted in the center of the circle.  

Valentine Peace tulip bulbs were planted around the tree.  Representatives from local Peace Mala schools participated along with spiritual representatives of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Celtic earth religions to give distinct blessings.  This profound ceremony is described here with details of weapons buried, pebbles representing acts of personal reconciliation, as well as messages of peace on scrolls placed in a Willow arch.  Also stated there are the meanings of each of the elements and tools of the ceremony.  

"What took place had to be one of the most profoundly beautiful and deeply spiritual ceremonies involving people of different faiths ever witnessed. We all felt that we had experienced a miracle."

The essence of this time of prophecy is that we are living in a time of crossroads; a time of shifting world age cycles where the old world and its separation-based mentality is in the process of dying and transforming into a new world that lives and creates through our hearts.

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Dear St Valentine, your martyrdom resounds through the centuries, An impassioned heart Guilty only of love . . We celebrate your gift, however vaguely remembered, By romantics and poets, Your love essence remains.  Yet we only know it now as a dress rehearsal, For our sentient nature, Clothed in superficial colours of glamour and illusion.  

But a higher love beckons, One we will yet experience, On all planes consciously, The magnet of the heart, Will bless the sacred union.  (VPP poem submission, Sophia La Toa, New Zealand)

  

September Peace Product Launch

Peace Sprouts

Working to seed VPP Gardens for this year's International Peace Day I attended Spiritual England's third national conference Peaceful Schools at the Quaker House in Euston, London.  The Peaceful Schools movement works with head teachers (principals) and other educationalists sharing tools to create safe nurturing schools utilising such practices as Philosophy for Children and other innovative programs - cultivating children as directors as well as participants of their own learning process and as peace ambassadors in their families and communities.  Two of the many powerful speakers were Rev Annie Blampied, an Interfaith Minister, who talked of her personal journey as an activist and teacher, and Laura Daniels, the Head Teacher of Woodheys Primary School in Manchester - who works with Peace Mala in Wales focusing on a school ethos of global citizens - her school having won awards on environmental awareness - with a Zen garden, a unique artist created labyrinth, and twin school programs in South Africa.

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Cultivating the summer season towards this year's International Day of Peace (four months from today) - the Shift Network- in partnership with The Culture of Peace Initiative, Pathways to Peace, The Peace Alliance, The Global Peace Initiative of Women, and International Cities of Peace are aligning to creatively broadcast and demonstrate emerging peace in a rising global culture via the Summer Of Peace.  To me, the current economic crisis demonstrates how we really are in this together and the SOP seeks 'to serve as a catalyst to help humanity reach a tipping point where cooperative problem solving, rooted in inner Peace and compassion for others, becomes the norm. It is through this evolving Culture of Peace that we can unleash the creativity of the human spirit to address global issues together.'

'The Summer of Peace 2012 will bring the vast array of different paths to Peace together under one umbrella to acknowledge, celebrate and accelerate this emerging Peace movement. Utilizing modern technology, especially social media, The Summer of Peace 2012 will create a global platform where the individual faces and voices of Peace can form a collective symphony of Peace. Together, this emerging wave of Peace can serve to inspire potentially millions of people with tangible ways to cultivate Peace in themselves and in their families, communities, country, world and with the natural environment.'  The opening ceremony with speakers and performances takes place in Oakland, California, USA.

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Elsewhere - blooming out of the historical Canadian Tulip festivals (which developed after World War II to honor the protection of the Dutch royal family in Canada during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands) the World Tulip Summit - an initiative of varied artists and horticulturists - are cultivating the tulip as a symbol of peace - strong international friendship.  The tulip, originally from Turkey, has a long dramatic history from the historical Dutch tulip mania [a speculative economic boom/bust - sound familiar?] to its current development as a symbol of peace and global unity.  

The Chair of the World Tulip Summit Society, Michel Gauthier, is also the Director of the International Peace Garden Foundation.  The founder of the Foundation, Paula Savage, organised a gift of 4,000 tulip bulbs from Canada to the United States, in 1990, thus creating the first International Peace Garden of the Foundation - which has grown to over 20 countries on five continents. [Beautiful photos at the website!]

The Fifth World Tulip Summit is composed in two parts - the first section as part of Floriade - the large horticultural exposition held once every ten years(!) in the Netherlands - Part One is opened by Princess Margriet [the member of the Dutch royal family born in exile/protection in Canada during the war as mentioned above] - Part Two takes places in neighboring Antwerp, Belgium where the first tulip bulbs arrived via Turkey 450 years ago. The program is linked here.

International Peace Garden Foundation logo

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I planted the Valentine Peace Project to bring out this nexus (harvest?) of forward thinking education, ambitious horticulture, and the evolving peace movement and artfully move forward the 21st century conversation - for the currently fragile at the same time strengthening - global culture and community.  The message from the UN for the International Day of Peace 2012 is sustainable peace - which makes me think of their University which 'seeks to achieve and promote a better understanding of three of the most pressing issues on the UN agenda: global change, peace and security, and development.'  This particular UN University is located in Japan which brings this blog entry now from the UK, to the US, the Netherlands and Belgium to Japan.  This demonstrates the flowering world movement on issues of conflict and peace that affect all of us wherever we live.  * * *

Elements of Valentine Peace

Valentine's Day Evening - Piccadily Circus London - spreading VPP roses and poems

On a tube platform - OccupyValentine.com

Six percent of children in Ecuador according to UNICEF are victims of child labor at a flower farm.
 Participating in Fairtrade builds new models in trade.

"What's done to the children is what's done to society" (The Buddah) 

 "It's possible to make money in a way that is not destructive, that promotes more social justice and more understanding and lessens the suffering that exists all around us,"  

(Peace activist and buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who will be at the Royal Festival Hall)

14 February Children's Imagine Festival - Royal Festival Hall - London's Southbank Centre

Roses arrive to the New Covent Garden Market from Fairtrade certified Luxaflor farm in Zimbabwe via Global Flower Trading in the Netherlands:

"Producers may have more influence on retailers than they think. In February, Max Havelaar Netherlands signed an agreement for distribution of Fairtrade roses with Jumbo supermarkets.  Showing great initiative, Itai Khulupi from Luxaflor Roses in Zimbabwe, wrote a letter to the Jumbo manager responsible for flowers in which he explained the impact Fairtrade has on the lives of flower farmers in Zimbabwe. It is this letter that prompted the deal.

The retailer committed to converting its entire product line to Fairtrade roses. In signing this agreement Jumbo, a leader in the processing and distribution of roses, is paving the way for other flower retailers to follow suit.

The letter is an excellent example of how producers in Africa can open doors and increase their own product sales." 

 (From Fairtrade Africa)

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Trafalgar Square, London

14 February Flash Mob Meditation at Piccadily Circus
(The current Flashmob Meditations of London described by Guardian journalist here)

Sharing VPP poems and flowers post-meditation.

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"How come we play war and not peace?"  (Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes)

VPP Amsterdam Coordinator Elena Kratvanchenko leads a team of dozens of participants including musicians to spread some community spirit 14 February on the streets and canals of Amsterdam. 

Making a paper flower to spread with a poem from the VPP website at McKinley Elementary in Santa Monica, California, USA.

 

 

 

Students of LaShawn Moore at McKinley Elementary School have participated in the Project for five years.  

This is her story from Year One:  

For the Valentine Peace Project, we were required to assemble our own poems. Last year, the poems came tied to the flowers for us. Being the teacher that I am, I decided, why not have 6 and 7 year olds roll up the poems, and tie the ribbons. As we worked to get the job done, Daisy commented, "This is like being in a place where they make stuff." "You mean like a factory?" I asked, "Yes," she said with a smile. Before I knew it, the kids had decided they were Oompa Loompas, and I was Mrs. Wonka. (You may remember that we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the beginning of the school year.) As we worked on rolling, taping, and tying 100 poems, it became apparent that some of us were better at certain things than others. 

The beautiful thing is those kids who may have found themselves challenged by the pre-existing jobs, created new jobs for themselves, in order that they could still contribute to the process. Throughout the whole process, there was no arguing, no disagreements, no put downs of any kind. In fact, although we began working at 3 separate tables, we all ended up working together at one table by the end.

It is hard for me to verbalize the magic that I feel sometimes happens in room 105, but today was certainly one of those days where I could see and feel it and want to try to share a bit of that with you. 

Oh and by the way, after the 100 poems were packaged and bagged, the kids wanted to do more! :-)

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A thoughtful paper flower to give pause at a busy Los Angeles shopping mall.

A rose of economic justice from the heart of Zimbabwe to the streets of London. 

A poem and hearty laugh on the canals of Amsterdam.

Elements of VPP *  February 2012

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Looking forward to the International Day of Peace 2012 and peace bulbs from the Netherlands for Valentine Peace Poetry Gardens - community, art and the work of sustainable peace.

Flower Power Evolution

The popular Cargo Bike or BakFiets of Amsterdam

"I gave flowers to strangers in the streets of Amsterdam for the first time in 2008, after I met Federico. His passion rubbed off and handing out the flowers was such a great experience! You surprise people with such a selfless act. Some people are suspicious, "What do you want in return for something I'm getting for free?!" But most people are grateful and walk away happy, with a beautiful flower and a poem about peace. When all the flowers are handed out, you bike through the city and see people walking around with VPP flowers everywhere! I do not like Valentine's Day, it's such a commercialization of real love. Giving flowers to people on this day seems to me the perfect antidote - love is about giving and not expecting something in return. It makes me feel good to participate, so I also get something out of it!" 

(Participant Peace Educator Pieternel de Bie)

To join Coordinator Elena in Amsterdam contact info@valentienpeaceproject.org

 

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“The day of peace and happy is here.  When you have secret admirers and do not feel fear. Hearts are drawn pink and red.  The soldiers are now safe in bed. . The world reflects back digging deep down inside . . Where light and dark combine so well  . . Cupid is here living with love . . The chocolates in the sun start to melt. The doors are open to a whole new store .  . You miss the people that changed your world before.  The past is gone, things you must live without.  At times you thought your life was a doubt . . Spread the care and feel for others.  Treat everyone as your brothers. Through dust and rain you ride the train.  Away, away, away, peace is everywhere.”  

(Valentine's Day, Justin Ruder, Paul Revere School, Los Angeles, CA, USA)

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14 February 2011 - Amsterdam - Sharing Fairtrade Roses and VPP poems in English, French, Spanish and Dutch

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"Why the Valentine Peace Project?  What for?"

 

Daniel Dancer's Art for the Sky

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Because We Can  . .

Bring Peace to Love on Valentine's Day;

Connect art and community; 

Transform the flower industry; 

Increase economic justice in trade;

Build a better world through the artistry [and agriculture!] of peace.   

 

"The purpose of activism and art is to make a world in which people are producers of meaning, not just consumers."   

Rebecca Solnit, The Untold History of People Power

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"What is breaking through out of what is breaking down?"

Barbara Marx Hubbard

Join Us this Valentine's Day!  Occupy Valentine's Day! info@valentinepeaceproject.org OccupyValentine.com 

Change Pollen

Today all people are challenged to be instruments for this new age, this new creation.  Without a New Creation, which means a new heart and a new consciousness in people and in new social structures, humanity will exterminate itself and put an end to twenty billion years of providential art and history.  We humans, for whom the planet has indeed become a global village, are required to create a new civilization that is worthy of our dignity as royal persons and our responsibility as divine co-creators.  If we do not create a global civilization where peace and justice reign and where the spirit of delight and celebration can be made to happen, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.


Matthew Fox 

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"You had asked me quite a while ago for a poem for the VPP.  When I was in my twenties, poetry was the center of my life, and I published quite a lot. Recently I have plunged back into that art, so I am keeping my promise at last and sending you a poem I wrote that was inspired by one of the quotes on your website."  TJ

THE FIRST FLOWER BLOOMED

Trebbe Johnson

The first flower bloomed on Earth

around the time the last dinosaur

died. Even the most unbending

pragmatist has to admire the whimsy.

Those lumpish beasts, rough drafts

for life on the blue planet, lumbering

for millions of years among green ferns,

grasses, great pines on feet the size

of truck tires, at home, no doubt,

but appearing in retrospect

always a little out of context. Suddenly,

some cosmic emergency flared out

of the stars and the whole world changed.

Now a new population began to emerge:

beings that didn’t have to move to thrive and,

swaying with grace, cast their future

wildly into the world with seeds, able

to invent the most excessive colors,

whimsical shapes, scents seductive

to insects, gaining ground until,

millennia after the experiment began,

someone arrived to laugh with delight.

VPP Amsterdam - February 2008