January Jaunts

What's up for January trips? Where is the quilt appearing? Four regional engagements. Three hundred people to be reached.

1. I will travel to Sisters, Oregon to speak at the Episcopal Church on January 10-11. An eclectic group of Protestant and Catholic women will create vision of peace postcards after I share the quilt's story.

2. I will visit Granddaughter Maggie's first grade class taught by Mrs. Noll at Pinebrook Elementary in Bend, Oregon. The Pierce Family(John, Maggie, and I) will share peacemaking visions with six-year-olds. We'll create cards for Oprah. Maggie's major line has already been memorized for three months: "Meet Me at the Peace Park."

3. I will preach in Kent, Washington at First Presbyterian Church on MLK, Jr. Weekend. Title of the Sermon: "You Have to be Carefully Taught...to be Peacemakers." This most diverse community in the area provides opportunity to highlight reasons by MLK, Jr. won the peace prize and more. The children's sermon will be timely when I share actual postcards from Maggie's class before mailing them to Oprah.

4. I will meet with Charlie Lewis's Mission and Justice Group in Snohomish, Washington to "talk peace" and inspire action on January 18, the birthday of MLK, Jr.

Laughing Lura on Tour 2010

2010! A Year of Peace-filled Possibilites!

What a pensive December it was-- a time for me to ruminate about my quilt journey since June. In teacher language, I took time to assess and evaluate but also, to stay put and to listen expectantly for next steps. Time out to think.

The quilt resided on Gary's Coffee Shop wall while I rested too. Its December presence brought continued awareness of the developing peace park in Eugene to relaxed customers drinking chai tea or eggnog lattes and to Last Friday Art Walk viewers. The peace sing-along was a hoot...lots of friends singing peace songs together, all led by the Harmony Quartet. During this quilt stop, U.S. Nobel Peace Prize winners' visions-of-peace postcards illustrated by middle schoolers were attached to the fabric surface for people to examine if they felt like it.

A Few Postcard Examples on the Quilt:

"My vision of peace is to destroy all landmines." Jody Williams, 1997.

"My vision of peace is for everybody to have food to eat, especially young children." Norman Borlaug, 1970.

"My vision of peace is that all women would have rights." Emily Green Balch, 1946.

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve...you only need a heart full of grace...a soul generated by LOVE." Martin Luther King Jr., 1964

Guiding quotes have surfaced this month. Eleanor Roosevelt's call to work for peace is one I am adopting, and there are two others that are the essence of the next year of my travels outside the U.S. As I once more commit to action by fulfilling a teacher's promise, I will spread middle schoolers' visions of peace to adults who may have forgotten how peace really can look and sound. I will go where the joy is to be found.

1. At the height of laughter the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities- Jean Houston

2. When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When action comes from another section, the feeling disappears. Rumi

Thus, Onward into 2010: Laughing Lura on Tour 2010. Was December a productive thinking month? Yes. I know one thing for sure. I won't run for City Council. (That's another story for another time.) There's not much of a river of joy or laughter in that possibility.

Sip and Sing-along at Gary's on December 19

My blogmaster, Jen B., is helping me to communicate the purpose of the peace quilt and its journey to a broader audience. Check out the newly featured gadget link to G-map on the left. Read the blurbs about the quilt's visits so far. I salute my sister science teacher this December for enabling me to share my retired teacher's promise.

Invitation to December Sing-along! View the displayed quilt at Gary's coffee shop wall on December 19 at 1:00 for 15-20 minutes. Sip a cup of java and sing peace songs with the newly formed Harmony quartet. Small environs. Informal. Wouldn't it be beautiful to have standing room only? (Also, if you can't come, enjoy "Last Friday Night Art Walk" on December 18 from 6-8 P.M. instead. The popular event lists Gary's as a stop where the butterfly peace quilt and Katie Stocks' red watercolors are displayed.)

In January the butterfly quilt flies down off the wall when I travel to Washington state for a couple of engagements on Nobel Peace Prize Winner MLK, JR. weekend. Justice and peace and tolerance...the theme. I'll continue to spread the word that middle schoolers may have the answer to inspiring peacemaking. (Check out Jack Johnson's tune "Together;" it pretty much says it. Go to Pandora, the streaming radio station, and listen to the lyrics. You'll be inspired. The kids were. They heard it every day as they entered the classroom.)

Shasta Middle Schoolers want you to claim your particular vision of peace. Name it, write it, and act on it. Simple. Not simplistic. And while you're at it, join others by sending a peace postcard containing your written vision to Oprah now. Make it a holiday card, if you feel like it. Join ONE MILLION other voices in their expressions of divergent visions of peace. Remember that it's not about agreeing on one way of viewing peace. It is about celebrating working together, yet separately/sometimes in opposition, to live helpful lives for the betterment of our world and ourselves. Scroll down for more info on making the postcards...easy, but not easy to implement.

Quilt Displayed in December at Gary's

Future Site of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Park in Alton Baker

December brings such wonderful opportunities to educate about peace...especially about the Nobel Peace Laureate Project in the Eugene/Springfield area. Come and see the butterfly peace quilt at Gary's on High Street in Eugene. It will tell a story of one way to look at peace. Many ways.

The quilt's purpose for the December display is to promote community awareness of the developing Nobel Peace Park here in our midst. Peace visions from the U.S. Nobel Peace Prize winners are clipped to the quilt surface. They were made by Shasta Middle Schoolers who researched the lives of these heroes before illustrating postcards telling what may have motivated their historic actions.

After learning about the Nobel Peace Prize, the optimistic sixth graders wanted to DO more influencing peace in others. They designed their own postcard messages, sent them to Oprah Winfrey and taught hundreds of others to do the same thing. Inspiring visions on postcards spread much like fluttering butterflies landing in Oprah's P.O.Box. (See November 11th blog entry for the information on how to send your vision of peace postcard to Oprah Winfrey. Join 1,000,000 other peacemakers now!)

During this 11th month of miracles, the butterfly quilt messages may also inspire Eugene/Springfield folks to monetarily support the construction of the peace park that will be unlike any other in the world. The two-acre plot of land donated by the city is located in Alton Baker Park but will provide a peacemaking forum for education and contemplation for all people. To break ground, $250,000 is needed to jump start the neatly designed architectural plan. Every dollar counts. This holiday make a $24.00 gift donation (one dollar for each U.S. Peace Prize Winner) in the name of someone you know who cares about peace on earth. For more information, pick up a brochure in Gary's or check the website.

Since June the butterfly peace quilt has traveled to over 24 places, but this month it's finding temporary rest at this local haven for 30 days. Basically, the quilt is on loan. I already miss it, but I will invite friends for a quilt visitation on Saturday, December 19th to sing and sip and celebrate the holidays. Stay tuned.

I thank my three friends who helped in the hanging...not an easy task. As customers sipped their mochas, deep into their conversations, they hardly noticed-- even when they had to move out of the way. The official hanger-uppers stood on tables, drew blood from the hanging-wire cuts, muttered and moaned when the quilt fell a few times, and managed to establish calm by finally getting it safely installed.

Some have asked, "Aren't you afraid that someone might take the quilt? Aren't you worried that people will get the material dirty?" Carol, the birth mama of the quilt, chuckled! "That quilt is meant to be handled, sat on, rubbed, folded, displayed, bled on, held and wrapped around those who desire peace. " In the fabled "Velveteen Rabbit" by Marjorie Holmes' the stuffed rabbit wasn't really totally loved until most of its fur had been rubbed off and its limbs were wobbly and lame. Peacemaking is sometimes messy and takes awhile too.

Meanwhile, as the months of fulfilling my teacher's promise to take the peace quilt around the world roll by, I marvel at the hope I continue to encounter. So, Oprah, you will continue to receive more individual peace postcards inspired by the stories of the youth I have promised to tell. Ms Winfrey should come to dedicate the peace park in 2012. Novel Nobel idea.