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Pinwheels for
Peace in Los Angeles
An Artistic Celebration of the International Day of Peace
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On Sunday, September 21st, the youth of the Los Angeles Family
Church gathered to celebrate the International Day of Peace in a fun
and creative way that engaged the whole community. An initiative of
the United Nations established in 1981, the International Day of
Peace is a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, as well as an
opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create
practical acts of peace on a shared date.
In order to connect to the global initiative of Peace Day, the young
people gathered at Monrovia Coffee House to create an artistic
celebration to show their support. The result was music, poetry, and
art all in the name of peace.
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The art project, "Pinwheels for
Peace," is an initiative already underway around the country, in
which thousands of supporters were decorating and displaying
pinwheels carrying messages of reconciliation and hope as a way to
show their solidarity with the vision of peace. Hundreds of
pinwheels were made by participants of all ages and were displayed
around the coffee house, on the street, and in the hands of
passers-by.
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Musical performances and spoken word also marked the night with a
festive feeling appropriate for an international holiday. Ares Meyer
offered a poignant poem titled "Peace," which both challenged and
inspired the audience to reflect more on their personal
contributions to a peaceful world and to become a "peace maker" not
a "peace taker."
Young and old, strangers and friends alike, shared markers and
scissors as they decorated their pinwheels and melted the barriers
until nothing was left, but a feeling of family. |
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Peace
Written and Performed by Ares Meyer
in honor of the International Day of Peace
See at one point in my life when I was young
I thought finding peace meant going to distant lands,
Burying my feet in distant sands
Praying to different Gods |
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Yahweh
Jesus
Buddha
And Allah
Putting beads around my neck
Chanting and inhaling incense
And letting words that I didn’t’ understand or know how to say
Take me away
To a feeling that I thought I had
Peace …
That I thought was attainable, something to find
But To find out what peace really is
To find it I had to go inside
On my lifelong search for peace
I quickly walk the streets
Trying to find anything that can give me the answer quickly
Trying to find an easy solution,
An easy way out
Trying to find a way to put words like peace love and truth into a
box
That I can define and give away freely instead of letting them do
what there supposed to do.
Which is be absorbed into me, absorbed into my skin and into my
blood stream filling and shaking every cell with what it means to be
truth,
What it means to be love,
What it means to be peace
Namaste
Peace
Shalom
Asalaam Aleykum
What do those mean to you
Are they just words?
What is peace?
Is peace being able to go to sleep with an easy conscience?
Is peace when the fighting stops and people drop arms and all agree
on the same thing?
Is peace conforming?
Is peace being so caught up in what you’re doing that you forget
about everyone else
Is that peace of mind?
What is a peace of mind?
Can your mind ever find peace?
Are there any solutions to the equations, the problems?
The thoughts
The feelings
The emotions that you have floating around in your head?
What is peace?
Is there a definition of peace?
How do you find peace?
Is peace attainable?
Does peace begin with you?
Does peace begin with me?
Give peace a chance
What are we saying?
What do we mean?
Is peace something that lasts forever?
Or is peace the moments when we find happiness
When we stop crying for a minute
When someone makes us smile
When we breathe,
When we wake up the next morning after something terrible
Empowered to keep fighting
You tell me
What is peace to you?
Cause peace to you is different then peace to me
But we are all looking for that same peace
We are all looking for that thing that makes our hearts stop crying
and our eyes start loving
Were are all looking for peace
At this point in my life I have only glimpsed peace
Tasted it at random times
And what I have come to know is
That every choice I make everyday
Every word I say
Every word I write
Gives me the power to give peace or take it away
So tell me
Are you a peace maker?
Or a peace taker |
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