Peace - ours to cherish.

Peace is precious.
Peace and prosperity - closely linked for 1000 years.
For this 21st Century something extra is needed.

About Peace

There are good grounds for day-to-day optimism about Peace.
After all...

...there's widespread hunger for peace

...new knowledge is helping to build peace in some badly afflicted places

...many communities and nations live among others in peace

...there's a lot more good 'news' than is widely reported

...many individuals share their 'inner' peace with others

There are a few concerns though - and being about Peace they're worrying

Peace is known to be fragile and is often broken

International co-operation to preserve peace is stretched beyond breaking

In today's world reactions to violence are globalised; everyone suffers

The financial cost of violence is high - 13% of the GGDP

Peace has been declining globally since 2014

Peace is hard to manage partly because there is no agreed definition.

No one recalls who said this first, but

"Something else is needed, because if we go on doing things the same way we'll go on getting more of the same"

We're better than to let that continue

Something more is needed to give Peace a better chance. Woodbridge Trees and Monument for Peace are here to help NOW.

Something

DIFFERENT

Because we don't want just more of the same

Something

SOON

Because peace is becoming weaker

Something

Because what's being done is not enough

Something

TOGETHER

Because that's how peace grows

Making Peace stronger requires more than can be done by major organisations such as the United Nations Organisation (UNO), in spite of UNO's valuable work the inhumane impacts of modern violence challenge our optimism, our faiths and our hopes.

Optimism does not resolve conflicts.

Faith does not break cycles of violence and revenge.

Hope is a wish that's in need of a plan.

Who can do more?

If UNO or other current actors could do more they probably would be already. And there are no higher human authorities we can expect to step in. We ourselves though can do lots of things that will help Peace by leaving fewer in need of UNO's help..

We cannot do what UNO does in the 'front-lines' of violent conflicts. But we can help others to solve conflicts before they turn to violence. See more about that in Posts on this site about Conflict. The overall aim of the Woodbridge Trees and Monument for Peace is to help all of us to make, grow and keep a better peace around and among ourselves.

For that, this site details and explains many activities, for our elderly, our young and everyone else.

The activities rest mostly on widely shared ideas about Peace. The activities all have realistic attainable aims related to Peace. Most of the activities are easy to do.

There are many other such activities. If you have your own constructive ideas, questions or thoughts please share them with us by Email.

EMAIL US

Giving Peace a better chance to make a better world

"
Tree for Peace, Woodbridge 2017

Do you mind being a symbol,
you, whose self, so much your self,
signals to sky that you're there, ready
to help the weather?

Should, I perhaps, call you 'city' since
you host colonies of creatures?
Funghi, mosses, creepers and winged
migrants lodge deep in your skin.

Your roots are like urban motorways
for countless lives to travel,
and your branches
are live with birds.

But you speak a language
all your own,
and, teacher of such shared delight,
now we understand how peace may grow
from the gracious spaces
of your silence.

Kate Foley
October 2017

"

The quality of peace affects everyone globally

So our voices for peace must speak to power with words that echo around the world.

LEARN HOW

Why Trees for Peace?

A Monument for Peace

Not many communities have a monument specifically for Peace. The idea of having one was inspired for the Founder in Woodbridge during WW1 centennial commemorations. The idea of a 'Tree for Peace' proved attractive to Woodbridge residents at a Community Fair in 2017. The Town Council readily agreed with the intention of stimulating learning and action to create a more peaceful world, and with the nomination of a fine tree as a symbol. In 2021 a second Tree was identified and agreed. The Trees and a walking Trail were dedicated as a Monument to well-being and peace education.

Why Trees

Trees have long been valued as meeting places, probably from millenia when their prominence and shelter in a sparsely populated landscape will have helped people to meet. Their fruits and timber have long been valued as food and material for building shelters as well as for making smaller artefacts.
In more recent times trees have remained valued as attractive features in gardens, in parkland and as gifts. Gifts of cherry trees have become associated with peace and peacemaking.

LEARN MORE