Building The Peace Path

The Peace Path is a connection between world communities, hearts, minds, and physical space. It is about learning to honor the peace within, talking peace, presenting peace, dancing peace, walking in peace. It is dialogue with diverse audiences, and getting to know your neighbor - both next door and several thousands of miles away. It can be made manifest in one's own thoughts, words, deeds, and actions. At Tourism For Peace, we build the Peace Path in our heart, mind, and spirit, and physically in the communities we visit and serve. Linking Peace Paths around the world is our goal - creating sanctuaries, and roads of peace.

Come spend time with community members and other guests building the Peace Path, from the local community Peace Garden to places of peace in the town - the church, the school, the grocery store, a youth leader's house, etc. Wherever peace is supported and encouraged becomes part of the Peace Path - for people to walk and interact with in a manner of peace.

Organic gardens, labyrinths, meditation spaces, playgrounds, and performance areas can be included in the Peace Path, and its path can be dotted with stepping stones, made and decorated by local children. Waterfalls, ponds, natural "backyard habitats", flower gardens, and imaginative places can all be created and included in the Peace Path.

Special Peace Poles: "May Peace Prevail On Earth," can be erected as reminders of this path of peace, and as a dedication to a world at peace.

EXCITING NEWS!
We Are Making HIstory in Atlanta! This summer and fall 2008, several Atlanta organizations, such as Zoo Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium, will be placing Peace Poles, each engraved with "May Peace Prevail On Earth" in several languages, at their venues. Gardens will be planted around each Pole. Come join us at the dedications for these Peace Poles - see dates on our calendar page.
BACKGROUND: ATLANTA PEACE TRAILS (APT) - Atlanta City Council Member Carla Smith, Partnerships In Peace, and Tourism For Peace, L.L.C. ("THE TEAM") are spearheading the effort to create and promote Places of Peace in Atlanta. Using a model from Bradford, England, of the "Bradford Peace Trail: A Walk around Bradford, City of Peace" brochure, they are compiling a similar brochure to distribute here in Atlanta, for both visitors and residents. This "Atlanta Peace Trails" brochure will highlight a numbered map and detailed history, location, languages, and goals on all the Peace Poles here in greater Atlanta area, and how to visit them. It will also tell you how you too can plant a Peace Pole! Please see http://www.worldpeace.org/peacepoles.html for information on Peace Poles - there are more than 200,000 Peace Poles worldwide! These Atlanta Peace Trails will link communities with both walking & motorized routes, and can be used by school groups as an educational tool to promote peace concepts and principles in everyday life. The brochure will be down-loadable this October from www.atlantapeacetrails.com. To date, almost 25 Peace Poles and 10 Peace Monuments and Gardens, exist in the greater Atlanta area.
PROPOSED NEW PEACE POLE VENUES:
1. Zoo Atlanta - dedication June 21st 2008
2. The Georgia Aquarium - dedication September 21, 2008
3. Spelman College
4. Emory University - Peace Studies Dept.
5. The Atlanta Bahá'í Center
The Team plans to photograph all the pole plantings (and invites others to also photograph the event), and include these stories and photos on the Atlanta Peace Trails' website (http://www.atlantapeacetrails.com), and in the published brochure as well. NOTE: the APT website is still being added to, and soon will include a history of peace, sample brochure, pages on each Peace Pole, links to other sites, etc.
GOALS OF THE ATLANTA PEACE TRAILS BROCHURE & PEACE POLE PLANTINGS: The Team is aware that Peace is a universal goal and right of all peoples. The history of those promoting Peace in this country is rich - beginning with The American Peace Society, founded in 1815 - the oldest peace movement in the world, and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. The Team aims to honor not only the individuals and organizations around the globe (like The Red Cross, The Carter Center, Martin Luther King, Jr.) who have made Peace their goal, but to bring this back to the local communities here in Atlanta and demonstrate both to residents (school children, families, businesses) and to visitors to this great city of Atlanta, that Atlanta can also have Peace as its goal. We see this effort as an instigator of many potential educational opportunities, to not only promote Peace concepts to businesses, children, and communities, but also to increase tourism revenue in Atlanta.
Thank you for being interested in Peace!

"From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ [the embodiment of Love] return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men -
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth."
[Alice A. Bailey, 1995 "The Seven Rays of Life" p. ix.]