Peace ideas

You’ll find here a range of ideas for promoting peace or celebrating the International Day of Peace. These include a beautiful peace prayer for the world, suggestions about personal action to promote peace, a guide to starting a Peace Club, information about participating in the Pinwheels for Peace Project and ideas for planning your own Peace Day event.

Reflections for peace
We can enhance our feeling of inner peace by regularly taking time to quiet the mind, to reflect on inspirational ideas and to fill our beings with compassion and peaceful energies. We can be an influence for peace by radiating these energies out to the world and by holding positive thoughts for the peaceful resolution of difficulties.
Here we share two reflections.

A Prayer shared by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989
For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world.
Shanti Deva

A Prayer for the World
Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly,
So that we can see beyond labels, beyond accents, gender or skin colour.
Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness,
So that we can share the joys and feel the sorrow of our neighbours.
And let the light of the sun be so strong that we will see all people as our neighbours.
Let the earth, nourished by rain, bring forth flowers to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven.
Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

Lighting a candle for peace
Marguerite Smithwhite wrote the following ‘promise’ for children, but the words are appropriate for all of us. While reciting this commitment, each person lights a candle for peace, sending a continuous belt of light around the world.
As a child of the Universe
I sincerely promise that I shall do my best
To be like a lighted candle:
To put light where there is darkness,
To give warmth where it is cold;
To do something each day that will be beautiful,
To make peace in myself and in others.
And if I fail, I shall not give up,
I shall try again;
And when I succeed my heart will be full
Of Light and Love, of Peace, Joy and Hope.

May Peace Prevail on Earth!
Start a Peace Club
This is a great way to work with others in helping to create a culture of peace. Better World Clubs is an international grassroots network of local clubs helping to create a better world. They are not associated with any organisation and don't require registration or membership dues.
Their website, www.betterworld.net/clubs/what.htm, has a large number of resources that are free for non-commercial purposes.
Your Peace Club might consist of members of your family or your place of worship, a school group, colleagues at work, friends and neighbours, co-volunteers in a charitable organisation or your fellow TS and TOS members.

Personal action
The following ideas for personal action come from Deni Gross’s article in the 2007 edition of ‘The Service Link’.

• We can use our personal talents, such as our love of art or gardening, to promote peace. We can ask others in the community to join us in planting a community peace garden. Here we can hold monthly gatherings to celebrate peace by working on the garden together, hosting a public peace ceremony, playing music, putting on skits that promote non-violence or reading our poetry.
• We can put ourselves in the other person’s shoes. It’s always easier to compromise when we try to see the situation from the other person’s perspective. With enough will-power, creativity, hard work and cooperation, even the most difficult situation can usually be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.
• Remember the children. Raising peace-loving children is an important part of a secure future for everyone. We can talk about the importance of peace and non-violence to children through religious education classes, scouting events, or school functions. When asked to speak at the school’s “career day,” rather than talk about our jobs, we can discuss our roles as peacemakers.
• We can join forces with one of the many organized, non-profit peace groups in existence. A recent internet search yielded more than a million entries on the topic, “peace groups.”
• We can learn about cultures other than our own and then pass that knowledge on to others.

Celebrate peace & unity on International Day of Peace, 21 September
This day was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981. All United Nations member countries agreed that September 21, the International Day of Peace, should be observed as a Global Ceasefire and day of nonviolence.
How can we support this day? We can:

• ask our favourite groups, organisations, or religious institutions to endorse the International Day of Peace.
• hold an art and craft workshop with a peace theme.
• invite our communities to join us for a peace picnic, with games or discussions that encourage collaboration and participation.
• hold a more formal event such as an afternoon tea with a speaker who promotes the benefits of peaceful living.
• enter our groups as participants in the Pinwheels for Peace Project (see below for details) and talk to our local schools about the project to encourage their participation.
• hold a candle-lit Vigil for Peace
• put on a play or hold a musical event with a peace theme.
• write letters for peace. This is a simple, but powerful way to help spread hope for humanity's day of peace. We can write letters to
• our Mayors, Government Leaders and Heads of State asking them to declare a Proclamation of Peace for the International Day of Peace.
• our Heads of State asking them to pledge to heed the United Nations call for a Global Ceasefire on Peace Day.
• the editors of our local papers letting our community know about the International Day of Peace.
• musicians we know and ask them to let their audiences know about Peace Day.
• any celebrities or other influential people we might know, asking them to use their spot in the limelight to spread the word about the International Day of Peace on September 21.
• We can stamp every letter we send out with: PEACE DAY – SEPTEMBER 21

The International Peace Day website, http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/ has excellent resources including a play and songs for children to perform.
Their affirmation is, May Peace Prevail On Earth!

Pinwheels for Peace Project
Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two art teachers in the USA as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. The project was quickly embraced by their students and the entire school community and by millions of art teachers, teachers, parents, children and adults who desire peace in our world.
Participants create pinwheels of all colours and sizes. As part of the creation process, they write their thoughts about "war and peace; tolerance; living in harmony with others" on one side. The writing can be poetry, prose, haiku, or essay-style – whatever writing form is appropriate as they express themselves. On the other side, they draw, paint, collage, etc. to visually express their feelings. They assemble their pinwheels and on International Day of Peace everyone ‘plants’ their pinwheels outside (at schools, museums, public places, etc.) as a public statement and art exhibit/installation. The spinning of the pinwheels in the wind will spread thoughts and feelings about peace throughout the country and the world!
This project need not be restricted to students. Parents can participate with their children and community groups can conduct their own workshops and installations of Pinwheels for Peace.
For directions for making pinwheels and an enrolment form for joining the project, go to their website: http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com