Share your smiles, compliments, time, talents, money, and energy with those around you. We must truly be the change that we want to see. And we can do it. We are doing it. Believe that the future is full of mindfulness where hearts mean more than our accounts.
The Love Initiative.
Notes From the Road – Bright Lights Blog
http://troubadourofpeace.blogspot.com/
Book a house concert or music for a yoga class today!!
TOUR DATES
| Date | Time | Venue | Location | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/22/18 | 3:00 PM | Choices | Akron, OH | |
| 3/22/18 | 6:00 PM | Tea Time for Peace | Kent, OH | |
| 3/23/18 | 5:00 PM | Friends of the Metro Parks Benefit w/ the Bright Lights | Akron, OH | |
| 3/27/18 | 7:00 PM | Brother’s Lounge | Cleveland, OH | |
| 3/30/18 | 6:30 PM | 330 Day @ Akron Civic Theatre | Akron, OH | |
| 3/31/18 | 10:30 AM | Celebration of Life for Marilyn Stroud | Cuyahoga Falls, OH | |
| 4/3/18 | 6:30 PM | MLK Kirtan | Akron, OH | Donations |
| 4/4/18 | 6:30 PM | Nonviolent Communication Circle | Akron, OH | Donations |
| 4/6/18 | 7:00 PM | Big Love Night @ Live Music Now w/ Rhodes St Rude Boys | Akron, OH | $5-10 |
| 4/7/18 | 8:30 PM | Mustard Seed Highland Square w/ Bright Lights! | Akron, OH | |
| 4/10/18 | 7:00 PM | Brother Lounge | Cleveland, OH | |
| 4/16/18 | 7:00 PM | Wolf Creek Winery | Norton, OH | |
| 4/21/18 | 6:30 PM | Bright Lights @ the Rialto | Akron, OH | $5 |
| 4/22/18 | 4:00 PM | Yoga Central | Canton, OH | |
| 4/28/18 | 7:00 PM | Wine Mill | Peninsula, OH | |
| 5/2/18 | 6:30 PM | Nonviolent Communication Series | Akron, OH | Donations |
| 5/4/18 | 7:00 PM | Big Love Night @ Live Music Now w/ Gretchen Pleuss | Akron, OH | $5-10 |
| 5/5/18 | 12:00 PM | Cleveland VegFest | Cleveland, OH | |
| 5/5/18 | 6:00 PM | Bent Ladder winery | Doylestown , OH | |
| 5/8/18 | 7:00 PM | Brother’s Lounge | Cleveland, OH |
AUG 7
Disarm Hate: Gun Violence Prevention Vigil & Dialogue
Public
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Wednesday at 7 PM – 9 PM
2 days from now68–90°F Thunderstorms
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Former BC Courthouse then walk to Salem United Church
Doylestown Borough
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DISARM HATE: A CALL TO ACTION
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL & COMMUNITY DIALOGUE ON GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION
WED, AUGUST 7, 2019, 7pm – Doylestown, PA
In the wake of the mass shootings this past weekend that left 30 dead and many injured, we ache for the victims, their families and the entire community. As we mourn, we also rise up to take a stand against hate and all forms of gun violence. The clear connection between hate and the access to firearms must be addressed by our elected officials
Please join us this Wednesday, August 7, at 7 pm on the steps of the former Courthouse (55 E Court St, Doylestown) for a candlelight vigil followed by a slow procession to Salem United Church for a Community Dialogue. (186 E Court St, Doylestown)
Please bring your own candle.
Co-sponsors include: Orange Wave, Temple Judea, The Peace Center, Rise Up Doylestown, Bucks Students Demand Action, Heeding God’s Call, The Rainbow Room, Salem United Church & CeaseFire PA.
For more information, contact thepeacecenter.org or call 215-750-7220.
The Grandmothers are getting ready to travel to New York next month to celebrate the Grandmothers Wisdom book launch and then we will travel to upstate New York for a historical event at Menla, LIFT THE EARTH, where we will be joined by other spiritual leaders.
Are you being called to action to support Mother Earth and world peace? Many have requested guidance on how to respond to the chaotic state of the world. Join us in traditional dialogue, ceremonies and circles, and participate in indigenous wisdom on these topics.
In love and peace,
Grandmother Mona Polacca
Book Launch
September 18, 2019
Tibet House US, New York, NY
Our much-anticipated book promises to be a ground-breaking portrayal of traditional spiritual women in history and will be an inspiration for all. These stories are ageless wisdom of earth-based cultures that can benefit all people in today’s climate of disconnection.
Please join the Grandmothers and special guests in New York City for the book launch of Grandmothers Wisdom: Reverence for All Creation.
Tickets are selling fast!
September 18, 2019
4:00 – 7:30 pm
Tibet House
22 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011
Join the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, Dr. Henrietta Mann, Nena Thurman and other special guests for the book launch of“Grandmothers Wisdom: Reverence for All Creation”.
The Earth is our loving grandmother. For all time, Cheyenne storytellers, generation after generation, have repeated this belief with both their minds and their hearts. As they say, The Great One, Everywhere Spirit, created the universe and all life with power so vast it defies human imagination. Entirely with the force of thought, the four powerful spirit beings came into existence to witness creation and to eventually safeguard and shelter all life, especially human beings. Next came the water of life, the fire and light of the sun, the infinite sky air, and compassionate Earth. The Great One, Everywhere Spirit, contemplated creation and thought the Earth to be the most beautiful of all, then declared that the Earth be known as our grandmother.
Grandmother Earth is also, more commonly, referred to as Mother Earth. Indeed, she is first woman, first mother, first teacher, oldest mother, and oldest grandmother. The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers whose magnificent lives are encapsulated in the work of this book represent Earth’s titanic spirit, power, beauty, and love. Individually and collectively, they are rooted in the Earth and carry her wisdom as a perpetual trust. They are committed to sustaining their Earth home and to educating and defending the hearts of all the world’s children.
Please join us in celebrating the manifestation of “Grandmothers Wisdom: Reverence for All Creation”, life and the continuation of this movement of peace, spiritual activism, honoring Mother Earth and future generations.
Seating is first-come, first-served.
Reception and book signing to follow. To join the signing line, we ask that you please purchase a copy of the book available at the event.
TransOhio and Clintonville Counseling and Wellness present the 2nd Annual Trans Career and Wellness Day at Columbus Public Health! Local employers and community and wellness partners will be onsite to offer employment, health, and other opportunities to the transgender and gender non-confirming community.
10AM – 3PM: Job Fair with dozens of local affirming and inclusive employers and resources from Community organizations
11AM – 4PM: Wellness Workshops
10AM – 4PM: Medical testing by Columbus Public Health
Please check back to hear about the employers and community partners attending this year, details about the wellness workshops, and info about raffle prizes! Please share!
TransOhio, Inc.
P.O. Box 14481
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Email: TransOhio@transohio.org
Facebook: TransOhio Fan page
Our Mission
TransOhio serves the Ohio transgender and ally communities by providing services, education, support, and advocacy, which promotes and improves the health, safety and life experience of the Ohio transgender individual and community.
Our Vision
- to serve as a bridge to other LGBTQ+ and ally communities
- to provide a focus for matters of concern to the Ohio transgender community and their allies by providing open, affirming, visible and tangible support
- to promote opportunities and networking that increase awareness of the Transgender and gender-nonconforming community’s needs and concerns such, as discrimination and violence
- to increase lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual, and ally understanding and cultural awareness of the Ohio Transgender community
- to help ensure that Ohio educational programs and services are inclusive and supportive of Ohio Transgender issues, perspectives, and concerns
- to provide social activities that are inclusive of all LGBTQ+ and ally communities, access to safe-spaces, people, forums for confidential discussion, support, and local and national resource information
- to foster Ohio Transgender community pride
Youth Champions for Peace:
Securing our Common Future with the United Nations onboard the Peace Boat
ShaRon Rea
The Whole Family Coaching
480-420-9551
ShaRon@TheWholeFamilyCoaching.
www.thewholefamilycoaching.com
A welcome letter from the host…
Greetings friends…
We’ve all got to follow best practices for staying safe and taking care of each other during the pandemic. This online gathering is about best practices for your inner life.
How can you rest in your own presence and non-reactivity? How can you open in compassion and let your heart’s intelligence guide your actions? How can you stay open to your experience – not grabbing onto your emotion but not bypassing it either? How can your struggles deepen your practice and bring forward new capacities?
This Being & Doing gathering will give you a chance to hear from some extraordinary, open-hearted, generous mentors. The teachers will all be live – guiding practices, taking questions and joining with you in a supportive field of collective presence. Use this opportunity to help you stay open and free inside of yourself, to nourish your resilience, and to connect with a powerful community of like-minded souls.
Jeff Charno, Being & Doing Host
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You can use this Awakening in the Midst video collection right away.
From Loch Kelly, Craig Hamilton, Diana Winston, Caverly Morgan
These aren’t ordinary guided meditations. These four short programs lead you directly into natural awakened awareness – a state of flow and effortless presence. Clarifying this in yourself is life changing and it’s easier than you think.
PRACTICING IN THE MIDST is a free two-day LIVE online gathering bringing together ten extraordinary and generous teachers with a community of thousands of people. Challenging times can be a powerful catalyst for personal and collective evolution. Come join us in practice.
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Awakening
You will learn to rest in your already awakened nature. A subtle shift opens you to freedom from the endless agitation of your mind. Touch into your deep heart and let it energize your actions.
Transformation
Inquiry, mindfulness, and radical acceptance can each open doorways into unseen dimensions of your soul. Release what isn’t serving you and let your true nature lead the day.
Connection
Feeling like separate beings is a mistaken perception. Our interdependence and connection, usually buried in the background, has become more palpable than ever. We’re in these lives
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Teaching Schedule for the Live Gathering
Talks, Practices and Q&A
MONDAY – May 11th, 2020:
MAY 11 @ 12:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Effortless Mindfulness Teacher, Psychotherapist, and Author
“The important thing is to find the Self that has the capacity to bear what seemed to be unbearable, the self that can be present with all of our parts unconditionally.”
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MAY 11 @ 1:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Meditation Teacher, Nonprofit Leader, and Visionary
“If you meditate to be a better person, you’ll always be busy trying to be a better person. If you meditate because you are in love with resting in your own luminous infinite being, you’ll always be in love.”
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MAY 11 @ 3:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Contemporary Meditation Teacher, Bestselling Author
“Fall in love with where you are. Turn towards this – a sacred moment, unrepeatable. Trust the ebb and flow of things. Say yes to uncertainty and the unresolvedness of your life.”
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MAY 11 @ 4:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of the Diamond Approach To Self-Realization
“We are not separate. Our sense of separateness is superficial and exists only in the physical dimension. Every other human being is just as precious as we are, and worthy of as much respect and love and consideration.”
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MAY 11 @ 6:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Spiritual Teacher, Founder of Integral Enlightenment
“True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is – including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.”
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TUESDAY – May 12th, 2020:
MAY 12 @ 12:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of Gateway, Spiritual Facilitator
“Do you know how to be quiet and let go, when life challenges you and brings you to the edge?”
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MAY 12 @ 1:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Wellbeing Research Professor, Director of Transformative Technology Lab
“The world’s largest scientific research project into fundamental well-being, sometimes called enlightenment, reveals the methods which actually work.”
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MAY 12 @ 3:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Author, activist, authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher) and founder of Bhumisparsha Sangha
“Let your love be the container for anger and despair. Love will not dissolve them, but will offer enough space to not get lost in them.”
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MAY 12 @ 4:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA, Author
“Saying yes means surrendering to your experience, whatever it is. It means feeling your body when you’re in the midst of a strong reaction or emotion… and noticing that thoughts and feelings come and go.”
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MAY 12 @ 6:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of Evolutionary Collective, Bestselling Author
“Right now, it feels more important than ever to come together and actively find our oneness, our goodness and our capacity to live a higher order of love as a social reality.”
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Practicing in the Midst
Being & Doing is committed to creating opportunities for people to come together to practice, to celebrate community, and to recognize unending mystery and beauty (even when the sky appears to be falling).
Recordings of the live sessions will be replayed for 24-hours on Wednesday, May 13th, in every timezone.
You can also purchase the recordings for a small cost.
Being & Doing Sponsors
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“Waking Up Fabulous: Taking Refuge in The Time of Corona” – A Half-Day LGBTQIA+ Community Retreat
In the midst of this global pandemic, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha has never felt more important for our community and this world. As LGBTQIA+ people, in these challenging and difficult times, we recollect the power of community to know that we are not alone; that together we can begin the healing of centuries of oppression and trauma within a deep knowing of our interconnectedness and interdependence. We learn to trust the unfolding of this life and act for the benefit of all beings.
This virtual retreat is an opportunity to come together and care for ourselves: to remember who we really are and to reconnect with our innate goodness. We will explore ways of sustaining a clear and open mind, a kind heart, and a strong body. And we will engage with the ancient teachings and practices offered by the Buddha that cultivate wisdom, kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, and skillful actions.
This virtual retreat is for all those who identify as LGBTQIA+. The program will include guided awareness and heart practices, Dharma talks, small and large group sharing, and gentle yoga.
This Virtual Retreat will be conducted on Zoom from 12:30pm – 4:30pm EST on Saturday, May 23. The virtual retreat link will be emailed to participants within twenty-four hours of your registration. Registration for this live webinar closes at 11:30am EST on May 23.
In keeping with the tradition of offering these teachings by dana, there are no fees associated with this retreat, it is by donation only. We invite you to consider making a tax-deductible contribution during the registration process. Suggested donation levels are listed, but if you would like to contribute more, please select the Participant option and type in your desired donation amount. We appreciate your support.
Teachers:
Madeline Klyne has loved the dharma since 1986. She is a co-founder and teacher of South Shore Insight Meditation Center (SSIMC), a core teacher at Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC), and a visiting teacher at Insight Meditation Society. Madeline teaches programs and retreats for LGBTIQ communities. Part of Madeline’s spiritual path was to come out at the age of 5. Madeline delights in exploring practice in daily life with all who are interested. Learn more at www.southshoreinsight.org.
La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1998, is a teacher and senior retreat/event manager for the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, and has been the guiding teacher of the IMCW LGBTQ and People of Color Sanghas since 2006. A 2012 graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Training Program, they also lead mindfulness retreats for teenagers with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and retreats for Young Adults at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. This will be La’s 5th retreat at Garrison for the LGBTIQ community. La has been a bodyworker in private practice since 1992 and a Reiki Teacher since 2004 in Washington, DC, where they reside with their life partner Wendy and their two Cairn Terriers, Annabel and MacGregor.
Lama Rod Owens is considered one of the emerging leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. An author, activist, and formally authorized Buddhist teacher in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism, he is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice community as well as a visiting teacher with several Buddhist centers including the Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Brooklyn Zen Center. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Lama Rod has also been a guest faculty member at the Harvard School of Education’s program Mindfulness for Educators. He has been a regular guest on SiriusXM’s Urban Viewhosted by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Karen Hunter. He is also a co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation and his next book project “Love & Rage” exploring transformative anger and rage is due out June 2020. Lama Rod can be reached at www.lamarod.com.
Jacoby Ballard has been teaching yoga for 20 years and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his partner and child. His work sits at the intersection of spiritual practice and social change and has led him to consult with Insight Meditation Society, the Yoga Alliance, Lululemon, and speaking on college campuses. His current foray into study and taking the role of student is through his enrollment with the Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock. His teaching style is playful and profound, integrating the teachings of the dharma into how we move and breath on our mats and with each other. More at www.jacobyballard.net.
Isabel Adon, LCSW, FOT, IFOT is a Bilingual Psychotherapist with an Office in Midtown, NYC. Isabel Adon is an Aboriginal Focusing Oriented Therapist and Trainer. She has over 20 years of experience in the mental health and presently works with children and families in an outpatient psychiatric setting in the Bronx. Isabel has been a volunteer rape crisis and domestic violence advocate for over nine years responding to crisis at six different NYC emergency rooms as a volunteer for the Mount Sinai SAVI program. She has extensive training in diversity work and for the past 15 years has been a practitioner of Vipassana and Ascension meditation.
Registration Options
| 1 – Participant 2 – Friend (Donation) 3 – Contributor (Donation) 4 – Supporter (Donation) 5 – Patron (Donation) 6 – Benefactor (Donation) |
0.00 5.00 10.00 25.00 50.00 100.00 |
Garrison, NY 10524
https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesHub-1695905997109684/
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Learn how you can apply these teachings and help everyone you know to embrace a happier, healthier life even during times like these.
Learn how you can apply these teachings and help everyone you know to embrace a happier, healthier life even during times like these. Episode 3: Where Healing Comes From
May 23 – 9pm Eastern (USA)
Episode 4: Healing the Past, Healing the Future
May 24 – 9pm Eastern (USA)
Episode 5: Self-Love, Loving Others
May 25 – 9pm Eastern (USA)
Episode 6: The Body’s Wisdom
May 26 – 9pm Eastern (USA)
Episode 7: Love is Medicine
May 27 – 9pm Eastern (USA)
Join the Facebook Group
Stay up to date with all things Love is Medicine
Thursday, May 28, 2020 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT
An Anishinaabe Prophecies, this time is known as the 7th Fire. The prophecy says that to move to the 8th Fire, we face a choice between two paths. One path is well-worn, scorched, and leads to our destruct.ion. The other path is new, green, and leads to Mino-Bimaadiziwin (the good life)
Join us as internationally-renowned activist and author Winona LaDuke – an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) member of the White Earth Nation – discusses how the pandemic provides us with an opportunity to walk a new path, taking care of each other, and our Mother Earth.
Crisis can bring out the best or the worst in communities. Winona will discuss what it’s going to take to herald in a restorative, regenerative, and just society, one where we appreciate each other, localize our economy, get cleaner, and healthier.
Let us put our minds and hearts together to make a good future for our children!
Winona LaDuke is one of the world’s most tireless and charismatic leaders on issues related to climate change, Indigenous rights, human rights, green and rural economies, food justice, alternative sources of energy, and the priceless value of clean water over a career spanning nearly 40 years of activism. She is Program Director of Honor the Earth, the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and Winona’s Hemp and Heritage Farm. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, she is the author of five books, including Recovering the Sacred, All our Relations and a novel, Last Standing Woman.
TICKETS ARE SLIDING SCALE $5 – $25 to benefit speakers and artists impacted by the cancellation of events due to the pandemic. All who register will receive a link to watch live or later at their own convenience.
Closed caption version will be available 3-4 days after the live event.
Eighth Fire Project:
We are lighting the fire.
Kind economy of the green path to Hemp.
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| Join the Next Pulse – SUMMER SOLSTICE Sunday, June 21st at 12pm PT, 3pm ET, 7pm GMT Timezone ConverterThis month’s theme: Celebrating Our Coherence Featured Organization: Earthdance Global Featured Musician: Miranda Macpherson
Followed by the Earthdance ConcertReserve My Space
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The 8th Annual Children’s Global Wave Of Love
June 21 at 1:11 pm in your heart and time zone.
We collectively come together to cultivate and
send forth our mission
“Children Across the Planet in Love, Care, and Respect.”
Since everyday is children’s day, we create a year-long, free, activity platform for children, families, communities, schools, organizations and YOU to empower
heart space and help transform the world!
Our Mission Statement: Our mission is to provide complete and total support to all children with an entire month of activities that enhance all aspects of a child’s life.
The Ribbon 2020 – Tangible Hope for No Nuclear War
The Ribbon was founded by Justine Merritt who had visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in 1982. She was greatly affected by the tragedy caused by the Atomic Bomb. After arriving home, it came to her to create a Ribbon, and decided to have a Ribbon event on the 40th memorial anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It was in the middle of the Cold War between The United States and The Soviet Union, and using nuclear weapons could happen again at a moments notice.
On August 4, 1985, in Washington, D.C., fifteen miles of Ribbons encircled the Pentagon and other important monuments: With the message of “What I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war”. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima was also encircled.
The Ribbon International is now a Non Governmental Organization in Association with the United Nations. Since 1985, many Ribbons have been created around the world. People carry Ribbons and pray for Peace at many occasions such as; community memorial gatherings and marches related to nuclear, peace and environmental issues. Ribbons have been exhibited in various places as well.
Nowadays the world is closer to the tragedy of nuclear war or a nuclear accident more than ever before.
On August 1st 2020, the 75th Anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Ribbon International is planning to have a Ribbon event in New York City and in other cities around the world. Please join us, and pray for a world without nuclear weapons and never another nuclear tragedy. (If you cannot join, please pray with us wherever you are.)
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How to make Ribbon
(Please also see our website: www.theribboninternational.org)
- Cut a panel of sturdy cloth, double thickness, of any color.
- Finished size: one meter by a half meter (or one yard by a half yard)
- Sew 20cm (9 inch) pieces of ribbon to each corner so the panels may be easily tied together.
- On this panel, sew, paint, write, embroider, weave, knit, tie-dye or use any other kind of ornaments to express what you most love about the world and want to protect from what is endangered on this earth.
- If you wish, write your name and/or any message on the back of the panel.
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BECOME A LOCAL CONTACT FOR THE RIBBON IN YOUR COMMUNITY – organizations, schools, places of worship, individuals, artists, teachers and many others have adopted the Ribbon project for such celebrated days as Earth Day, World Peace Week and United Nations/Global Citizenship Day to promote local awareness and action. Create Ribbons to display at local events, advertise in newspapers, organization newsletters, on radio and TV.
| THE NEW RIBBON: TANGIBLE HOPE | ||
| THE UNITED NATIONS HAS DESIGNATED SEPTEMBER 21 | THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Honor this day of global cease fire |
CREATE RIBBON EXHIBITS FOR PEACE |
To help support the Ribbon project and keep it growing around the world please send tax exempt donations made out to – Peace Action Education Fund, 40 Witherspoon St., Princeton, NJ 08542, USA and direct it for The Ribbon International.
We invite you to join the Ribbon project, there is no fee. Just create and display a Ribbon, you have then symbolically joined with others world wide in creating and thinking in terms of care and protection of the earth and its inhabitants.
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Pieces to Peace,
There will be no check-in table in Arlington in August
with an aging, greying teacher with a red Bic pen
waiting to grade assignments for more than ten miles of Ribbon.
All the pieces belong there:
all the symbols of a nation’s yearning for peace.
Who would want to judge the pieces?
Choose one as better than another?
Work of Art?
Work of heart?
Who would want to judge the pieces?
Lay aside a child’s rain-touched, felt tipped rainbow
for an artist’s gessoed work?
Who would want to say the eighth-grader’s acrylic basketball court
held more promise that the quilter’s careful stitches
holding her aching heart together after the evening’s late news?
Each one makes The Ribbon:
the pizza, poison ivy, pomegranate seeds
the ladybugs, mid-Hudson bridge,
poetry,
and creed;
each segment makes The Ribbon.
It is in the addition we find the sum:
for it is one yard
plus one yard
plus each yard of cloth
that we honor the diversity,
that we celebrate the unity.
Each piece makes The Ribbon;
each piece brings the piece.
Amen
JOURNEY. Justine Merritt
CA: Hope Publishing House
1993. (p.111) -Arlington, VA 1985
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Some Events in the Life of the Ribbon
1982: Justine Merritt is inspired to tie a Ribbon around the Pentagon in Washington, DC, USA from the theme; “What I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war”, and writes about it to friends on her holiday card list.
1985: August 4th: Over ten miles of Ribbons encircle the Pentagon and other Washington, DC buildings. The Atom Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan is also
–1986: In New Zealand, Ribbons connect US and USSR embassies. In South Africa, Black and White mothers unite using Ribbons to tell their government they don’t want their children killing each other. In Japan, Ribbons are used to protest the razing of Ikego Forest. 10,000 Ribbons link B’hai temple to the ocean in Austrailia and USSR World Leader Mikhail Gorbachev is presented a Ribbon by Justine Merritt.
1987: In Okinaw, Japan, Ribbons help surround the largest military base in the Pacific and are displayed in Zushi for the environment at Ikego Forest. In Holland, panels connect the US and USSR embassies. Tamel, Sinhalese and Christian segments are exhibited together in Sri Lanka.
1988-1989: In the Middle East, the Interns for Peace calendar shows Ribbons made by Arab and Jewish children.
1990: In London, Ribbons are exhibited in the Houses of Parliament. In Geneva, Ribbons are displayed in the Palais des Nations during the NTP Conference.
1991: In New York, Ribbons are exhibited at the United Nations during the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Conference. Included are panels created by Iraqi and American children. New York State Museum in Albany has an International Ribbon exhibit.
1992: Ribbons are displayed in Brazil and around the planet during the UN “Earth Summit.”
1993: Ribbons are displayed at the Human Rights Conference in Vienna, inspire an environmental Ribbon contest in Singapore and is cosponsor of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago.
1994: The Canadian Ecumenical Council Calendar features Ribbon segments as part of UN related art. Gas City and Marion Indiana create and exhibit Ribbons in preparation for the UN 50th anniversary.
1995: Ribbon displays celebrate the UN 50th anniversary Year. With the help of divers, Ribbons are carried under water and connect Egypt, Israel and Jordon. Segments are contributed by Switzerland, Germany, Italy and China.
1996: International Mothers of Liberia use Ribbons to help protest the stealing of children for the army. Towns in the Ukraine create panels calling for a world without wars or violence. Ribbons are given to all the UN Missions. Mayors for Peace through Inter-city Solidarity learn of the Ribbon.
1997: Estonia uses Ribbons to celebrate peace. Ribbons are taken to Haiti to promote a culture of peace. In Magdeburg, Germany, the Mayor inspires the city’s population to create and display panels for Human Rights Day and other occasions. The Bonadssamlingen Museum in Stenstorp, Sweden exhibits Ribbons.
1998: Ribbons are displayed at the UNESCO Culture and Developement conference in Stockholm, Sweden. *1998 is the UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR of the OCEANS. Show on your Ribbon the beauty of our never ending oceans.
1999: Ribbon panels are displayed for Human Rights Day in Copenhagen, made in China, are exhibitied at the Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP99) in the Netherlands and created for the International Year of Older Persons.
2000 – 2006: Ribbons are given to all U.S. Congressmen for the UN Culture of Peace Year. Lake Havasu City, AZ, USA creates and display Ribbons for UN Day. Africans and Cubans receive Ribbons for peace. A Ribbon is given to Pope John Paul II in Rome in honor of the Decade for a COP and Non Violence for the Children of the World. 9/11 annually Ribbons are carried from the UN to the World Trade Center, NY with an Interfaith litany read.
2001 – 2010: The United Nations International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. Show on your panel a “Culture of Peace.” Church Women United (CWU) initiates the Ribbon as part of their celebrated days of prayers for peace such as World Community Day.
Founder Justine Merritt and Michele Peppers present Ribbon panel to Pope John Paul II, in honor of the United Nations resolution for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non Violence for the Childrend for the World (2001-2010), October 17, 2001
