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

Because what's being done is not enough

Something

SOON

Because peace is becoming weaker

Something

DIFFERENT

Because we don't want just more of the same

Something

TOGETHER

Because that's how peace grows

Making peace stronger

Making Peace stronger requires more than can be done by Charities or even by major organisations such as the United Nations (UNO).

In spite of their valuable work modern violence has global costs and inhumane impacts that challenge our optimism, our faiths and our hopes.

Optimism, after all, does not resolve conflicts.

Faith does not break cycles of violence and revenge.

Hope is a wish that lacks a practical plan.

It's Action that's needed.

But here is no higher human authority with the capacity to step in.

Fortunately, there's a lot we can do ourselves to build and share peace.

Who can do more?

First, we absolutely can make peace stronger.

World Peace is not easy to make; more on that later.

But over time we can make peace grow from our small beginnings.

So start small. Just look around yourself.

Be alert for small problems. Try to resolve some of them before they lead to angry arguments and sour disagreements.

That approach works well in schools, remarkably well in ones that train their young pupils as school-time mediators.

It also works for almost everyone at the start of their independent life, as their mother mediates the intense stresses experienced by her newborn child.

Ideas in modern neuroscience suggest that such care may be the physical origin of peace and a practical way to grow a greater peace.

Everyday vigilance and helpfulness among friends and communities will, meanwhile, leave fewer problems in later need of scarce and more costly help.

Posts on this site explain further and suggest simple everyday activities that will improve the peace that surrounds us.

If you have your own ideas, thoughts or questions do please share them here 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

Monuments of durable stone or metal have a long tradition as memorials for historic events and worthy individuals.

In contrast, the Woodbridge monument for Peace uses ephemeral materials to memorialise and symbolise its popular but fragile and often forgotten subject.

The monument is further distinguished by its large size and diverse character, both sufficient to host and engage many visitors in future-changing activities.

Those features distinguish this as a ‘modern monument’ of a new sort, inaugurated internationally in 2016 by a design competition for educational Memorials for the Future.

The monument’s trees and walks are curated to both memorialise peace and promote learning and action to strengthen it.

There's more to read in other Posts on this site, about the Monument's invitations to education and to peace-building and welfare activities.

Why Trees

Trees have long been valued and are now acknowledged as living allies in our ecosystem.

For many millennia they provided signposts, shelter and meeting places for travellers in sparsely populated landscapes.

Their flowers, fruits and timbers still provide foods, curatives and materials for building and smaller artefacts.

Their forms are attractive as features in parkland, streets and gardens.

Many have acquired symbolic meanings that make them attractive as gifts.

Spectacular cherry trees have acquired fame as peace-building gifts, often called ‘Peace Trees’.

The Woodbridge title ‘Tree for Peace’ acknowledges a degree of personhood.

Read in the Monument and Journal pages about the Trees and their locations.

LEARN MORE