Today is Peace Day. It’s also a day of Global Ceasefire. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the fighting stopped for this one day. It’s certainly something to aim for, and beyond.
This week with my Cub Scout Pack in Kirkbymoorside, UK, we thought about Peace and what a global ceasfire might mean. We made peace cranes, thanks to Stone Bridge Press’ wonderful A Thousand Cranes: Origami Projects for Peace and Happiness (2011), adapted from a book by Florence Temko (1921-2009); and then we held a short vigil by candle-light (one of our Challenges in our Diamond Challenge was silence: hard but ultimately rewarding).
We shared Lao Tzu’s wise poem from 2,500 years ago:
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
It is one of the prayers in the beautifully presented Let There be Peace: Prayers from Around the World, selected by Jeremy Brooks, illustrated by Jude Daly (Frances Lincoln, 2009).
People around the world will be pausing for a moment’s silence today at midday local time. Let’s hope the guns stop firing too.
This week’s Poetry Friday host Renée LaTulippe has a bowl of Poetry Candy over at No Water River, so head on over…