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.  * * *