life is beautiful

i saw this video on another blog this morning and had to share it.
i hope it brings a hopeful, cheery, heart tugging smile to your face as well - 

I know there's peace around the dinner table, and I know there's peace as in countries around the world minding their own business, tending to their own backyard, and playing nice with each other. And I know there's peace as in around the water cooler, but today I think about peace through the lens of Nancy. For Nancy and others like her who simply have a different way of being in the world . . .

I wish them
understanding instead of scorn
and acceptance instead of ridicule

I wish them
care instead of abuse
and tenderness instead of harm.

I wish them
to be seen and not overlooked,
to be respected and not dismissed.

I wish them
ample opportunities for expression
and the materials to be creative.

My biggest wish is not for all the Nancys in the world to be more like us,
you see,
but for us to be more like them.

Then, it seems to me,
we would know peace.

_______

She draws:

Then I stitch:

And that's how we do it.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning of our collaborative creative project and read your way current.

Requesting permission...

As some of you know, here in Maleny in Australia we encouraged a few artists to participate in Flags for Peace 2012, and to fly their flags on International Day of Peace. We included them here and here.

Since then we have been fortunate to receive a grant (around A$1700) to use the photographs of the Maleny Peace Flags and to publish them in a Blurb book. The book will be a hard cover, coffee-table kind of book which we will donate to schools and public Libraries in our area.

We have enough money to publish 40 books.

We are also hoping to tell the story of how the Maleny Peace Flags fit in with this blog and the project started by Mary Jane, and would love to include as many images from here as we can at the back of the book - to show how it fits together.

If you would be willing for us to use images of your flags as posted here and include them in our book could you please either leave a comment or email me (fiona.dempster1@bigpond.com) and let me know it's OK?

The book will also be available to purchase from the Blurb book site once we have published it. The cost will be around A$40.00 and we expect that it will be available sometime in December.

We are excited that we will have the opportunity to share the beauty and variety of peace flags, and the idea that artists around the world believe in peace and wish for peace.  It will be wonderful for the schools to receive a copy and who knows, it might lead to them getting involved themselves next year?

Thanks for your participation so far, and hopefully for your permission to use images of your flags in this publication.

Many thanks and go well, Fiona. Here are my peace flag weather-grams, still flying as the tree buds and grows around them...

sandy

Our peace flags survived the storm.  

Being so far inland here in NC we were lucky to see only the outer fringes of Hurricane Sandy.  Although she has hit land we are still experiencing wind bursts and patches of rain.  Even being this far away.  

States north of us, including NJ, where our dear friend, Mary Jane lives were hit hard.  Sandy was not kind; flooding and power outages for millions along the coastline.  Let us all come together and send as much healing light and love as needed (and much more) all this week to our brothers and sisters hit hardest by this massive storm.

PEACE

Photo found on Pinterest. Photo credit: Alison Domzalski

"May peace and peace and peace be everywhere" 

 The Upanishads (c.900 - 600 B.C) 

Woodland Peace

In pursuit of Peace. More and more I find that without a connection to the Natural world I lose my Balance. Some would say "we are Nature" . I find this to be true . We do not go out into Nature or experience Nature but rather we are part of the whole. In order to bring about a true Peace on this planet we have to embrace the connectedness that this implies. We are not separate. Everything we do causes a ripple effect. From actions to thoughts to feelings.

I particularly like these chakra flags from Nepal as they allow us to focus on balancing our energy centers . Many sages have suggested that  Peace begins within. If our inner vibration is lacking harmony how can we project and further the Peace in the outer world? I am grateful for these colorful reminders.

 Flag messages :

Red    I am safe . I trust more. I fear less. I am centered and grounded

Orange   I feel my emotions and my pain. I reawaken my passion. I surrender to this moment.

Yellow I am courageous. I am whole. I stand in my power.

Green I am loved, I let love in. I am kind to myself. I live in peace and gratitude.

Blue  I play in my imagination. I create my reality. I know and share my truth.

Purple   I honor my intuition . I accept my path, I am healing : body , mind , and spirit.

Lavender  I connect with Spirit. I invite sacred transformation . I embrace the unity of all beings.


Shanti

a note from an artist

On Wednesday 15 August I posted an entry about Montse Romagosa and the sculpture she dedicated to the flags for peace project.

Peace and Freedom

Montse was really moved by the response of the readers and on 12 September she sent me a note so that I could post it here. It is only my fault that it has taken me so much longer to do so. I have been feeling poorly and things got disorganized for a while here.

So this is Monte's note for you all:

'I am delighted with the many interesting interpretations of Peace and Freedom. My intention is to recover objects of daily use that have lost their original purpose of being - discarded materials, objects that the passage of time and subsequent deterioration have turned into waste, old pieces of junk, things that have lost their meaning and their value - and to give them new value, a new symbolic and aesthetic significance.'

I hope Montse will forgive my delay and thank you for your warm interest in her work.