World Peace Day September 21st

Established by the United Nations General Assembly, in 1981 The International Day of Peace or as we now know it, World Peace Day, is celebrated each year on September 21st.  Twenty years later, it was designated as “a period of non-violence and cease fire”

Here in 2016, the theme of World Peace Day is: “The Sustainable Development Goals, Building Blocks for Peace”

I am honored to be part of the Poets for Peace project https://thepoetrychannel.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/poets-for-peace-the-finished-collaboration/

The above link will take you to the finished collaboration and some pretty amazing content!  Also, that collaboration is being published in Praxis Magazine online AND it is being archived at Stanford University in their 100,000 Poets for Change collection!.

Here is my contribution to that collection:

Caretaker

The world’s a garden

Plant seeds you wish to see grow

Only peace, grows peace

(c) 2016 Annette Rochelle Aben 

Many wise people have shared their thoughts with us regarding peace and a common theme seems to appear, that being that fighting for peace is NOT effective.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” Nelson Mandela

 “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”  Desmond Tutu

“There are two ways of spreading light; be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Edith Wharton

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”  Margaret Mead

The quote I like best, comes to us, from Buckminster Fuller: “You never change anything by fighting the existing. To change something, build a new model and make the existing obsolete.”

See the world at peace

Feel at peace with the world first

Leaders will follow

(c) 2016 Annette Rochelle Aben