on the peace/prayer flags project and international peace day

tomorrow is international peace day - 

if you haven't yet, please do click over to the flags project blog to see what people have been sharing... tomorrow is our day to come together to post about the flags we have made - in their many interpretations... 

see their work, read their words, hear their thoughts... 

perhaps adding some of your own along the way -

it's all rather beautiful and moving when you think about it... 

all i know, all i know...

'...love will save the day'
- des'ree

'love is my religion.'- i have been ruminating over this sentiment written by tamekah & then reinforced by beth in the comments of that post... i have had ziggy marley singing in my head as well as des'ree... it's been nice, & expansive for my soul...



i think it is very easy to fall into thinking about love in solely the romantic sense... if that's not working out for you, & your heart is feeling a bit battered, it can taint your thinking... step back - i am surrounded by love... love of & for family and friends, love for humanity and the opportunity we have each day to make a difference... love for the creatures we share this planet with and love for the flora that also find their home here... i am a bona fide tree lover and i say that without shame!

i have been playing around with copper and trying to do more with it, as you know... having never been a 'heart' person, this is new and fun for me... i used a porcelain heart charm from nancy at round rabbit and made my own word charms - i love the way they sound when they touch, it's like music, a soft tinkling... then there are beautiful beads from bleu verre, maku studios, jubilee & linden avenue designs... the glowing labradorite dangle at the closure shares company with an open hand... keeping your hand open to both give and receive...

truly what else is there? what is the root of compassion, sympathy, forgiveness, charity? love... what are more songs, poems & plot lines for books, plays, movies about than anything else? love...

some people are easy to love, some more difficult... some you want to love up close and some we love from a distance... but we keep on because we need to & without it, no peace is possible...

intrinsic value

this is a small statue that i remember seeing always at my norwegian grandmother's home... she died last year and so i share it with my mom... but it has recently got me to thinking...
afterall, it is obviously a miniature of 'the little mermaid' who resides in copenhagen bay, denmark... 'the little mermaid' is a tale written by hans christian andersen in 1836... it is nothing like the disney film... the mermaid makes great sacrifices to herself in order to get a prince to love her...
so, did my nana have this merely as a souvenir? i think not... she was in a marriage where her heritage was smothered, where she was not fully herself... i remember her as a very self-sufficient woman... a reader of anything she could get her hands on; though she had a soft-spot for henrik ibsen, a norwegian writer considered to be very progressive in his thinking... i think the little statue was a reminder, of the sacrifices that are made that can end up destructive to oneself... she eventually left my grandfather...
so where is the line drawn between sacrifice and self-sacrifice?

'the sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice
is no sacrifice.
real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer
and gives him a sense of peace and joy.
the buddha gave up the pleasures of life
because they had become painful to him.'
- mahatma gandhi

i don't think that anyone wants to be in this boat, no one goes looking for it... but it happens... how do women (and definitely some men) end up in such horrible positions? why is their self-esteem so low? beautiful stories like 'the secret life of bees', 'hannah's daughters', 'the good earth' and even shel silverstein's 'the giving tree' explore this topic... i used to love 'the giving tree' until i got older - and i realized the boy/man only took... and that even though the tree wanted to give him anything he needed, he let her become nothing but a stump... that story pains me now... because there are so many people doing that same thing... and they are hard to help... self-sacrifice leaves you less than you were, sacrifice can make you more than you are...

when i saw the green girl studios mermaid, i made a connection to the keepsake, to the statue, to the story... you have an intrinsic value that should be untouchable... it is yours to share but yours alone... this beautifully created mermaid knows that... she is part of a bracelet made with vintage brass chain, findings and sea star... there is glass by mika at pinocean and stones reminiscent of the one she sits upon in copenhagen... and there is a vintaj 'believe' tag that hangs as well, it is just not pictured...

to be worn to remind you of all that you are - and how beautiful that is...

who will you find in the sea?

maggie and millie and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

millie befriended a stranded star
who's rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

for whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.

- e.e. cummings

this is the creation that came from the beads by mika and the sand dollar charm by erin... i know my usual is chunky & the original plan was to have a lot of shiny silver... however, after finding out that mika hand sands each bead, i felt that it was a disservice to hide all of that surface area... and the flat sides of the discs are more like the sea glass that one finds anyway... erin's charm is so highly detailed that the same applied... keep it simple, natural, random...

so i began to think of the tide line left on the beach when the water retreats after a storm... piles of broken reeds, sea weed, skate pods, sand dollars, sea stars, all sorts of shells &, if you are lucky, sea glass... sea glass in varying shapes and sizes but having a certain color range - brown, blue, green, and clear... in thinking about it today, i realized that sea glass is the result of pollution - i guess it's the only kind i am ok with then (& i didn't think i was ok with any of it)... as you inspect the ocean's offering, you enter a kind of trance... searching for the perfect ____ (you fill in the blank)... and when you do, you treasure it - for you have found a gift that means more to you than anything material... and isn't it interesting how you are satisfied with just one (whatever you found)? in a world where people collect and look for more, you unconsciously stop and feel complete...

science tells us that we feel relaxed and happy at the beach because of the negative ions that are released by the crashing water... that may be true, but i think there is something to just connecting with nature... it takes us to a simpler place... a place where we can just be... a place where we can believe that everything will be okay, that our goals can be achieved and our challenges overcome...