Peace – Definitions From Around The World

I love being creative and being able to share my inspiration with others. Even more, I love being able to create situations that allow others to join in. It is truly wonderful to be able to marvel at other people’s creativity as we pursue similar motivations and desires.

Several months ago, I had a fun idea. I began asking my Facebook friends and my blog readers to create definitions or poems that represent the word PEACE. I’ve shared several stories in the past and since then I’ve continued to receive even more expressions that I will share with you, today…


Facebook is a really neat way to meet people from around the world. It’s also a great way to reconnect with friends from my days as a young student. Lori and I were neighbours from a small farming community and we used to ride the school bus together. We recently reconnected and Lori has told me that she loves the fun and crazy things I do on Facebook. She really enjoyed the many peace-poems that I’ve shared and so she felt inspired to send in her thoughts on the subject. Thanks, Lori!


Zeineb is a student living in Tunisia and she loves the inspirational music of U2. We connected because of a fan page - I think Bono and the boyz are very inspirational, as well! We’ve chatted online and through emails about a number of things and I think that it is great how I’ve learned a little bit about her country as she has learned a bit about Canada.


Valerie and I have not chatted as much and we really don’t know a great deal about each other, but that’s just fine. What’s even finer is the fact that this did not stop Valerie from expressing her thoughts on the subject of PEACE. Thanks!!!


From Canada! From Tunisia! From the U. S. of A.! and from the United Kingdom, people have been offering their insights and ideas to inspire others to realize how special our unique situation is – living on a rock, spinning around a ball of fire, hurtling through the vastness of the universe wondering ‘Why?’.


Being surrounded by all of this inspiration motivates me in many ways. A little while ago it was Joanne’s birthday and so, I had a bit of fun creating this peace-poem especially for her!


When someone sends me their definition or poem about peace, I try really hard to find an image that will fit well with the words. Once this is done, I upload the completed art on Facebook and then I ‘tag’ the person who wrote the words. Because of this many more people are able to see the final art. This is how Don became involved with this project. I had tagged someone who created a poem for me and the image ended up on their wall. Don is this person’s friend and he saw it on their wall. Don sent me a friend request and shortly after he sent in his peace-poem.

Don thinks that this is a really fun way to share inspiration and he became inspired to create many many peace-poems. He even went so far as to find his own unique images and create his own final art. I think Don has created over twenty peace-poems since that time!!! Great effort – truly inspirational!


A few weeks later, Don sent in a very eloquent poem about peace. It was hard for me to find just one image to suit his words and so, I created this three image sequence.


One evening, I was thinking about this whole project and how delighted I was to have ignited so many colourful expressions from so many other inspiring minds. I began thinking about how I learned to write poems in this acrostic fashion. During my adventures in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut – in 2006 – one of my young students introduced me to this style of poetry (ha! even teachers learn). I wrote this poem inspired by my memories from Canada’s truly Great White North!


Mark and I were also high school friends, now reconnected on Facebook. We had a chance to reconnect in person, last summer at another friend’s birthday party. We shared a few laughs and a few beers! I was very happy to see his peace-poem in my inbox.


Nancie and I have been sharing comments and inspiration on Facebook for quite some time. Nancie is a huge fan of The Peacebus and all the artwork that my students’ create. When she heard about this particular project she became very excited to participate and she sent me this wonderful expression.

About a month ago, Nancie wrote me a letter telling me about a project that she was just beginning. She was very inspired by my huge collection of peace-poems and she came up with a great way to share all of these expressions with even more people. She asked me if I could send her the jpeg images of all of these poems so that she could make a quilt. In a few weeks from now, Nancie will be participating in a local Peace-day event in Maryland, USA and she will be raffling off this quilt to raise funds for organizations in her community. WOW! Thought I!!!!! How totally cool and exciting!

But… doesn’t this sound a little familiar? Yes – that’s right – you may remember another story where a different Facebook friend created a quilt using the artworks created by the students who rode The Peacebus, last year. That story - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2011/01/amazing-surprise.html.

I’m always delighted when people participate in the fun ideas that I promote. I’m even more delighted to see my small spark of inspiration evolve into something that I had yet to even dream of! Remarkable!!!!

I’ll be sure to update you with the results of Nancie’s efforts, once her project has been completed.

Until then, be the spark that sets the flame!

Jim