Day 3... Colo(u)r of peace

When you think of peace… what color comes to mind?

What color is joy?

respect?

dignity?

trust?

reciprocity?

community?

contentedness?

grounded?

conviviality?

I love color… the colors of the natural world. The color of place. And when I think about the places that are dear to me… it’s in color.

“Color is the first principle of place” ~Nan Shepherd

Whether it be the purple of springtime…

the blue-greens of a beach far, far, away from “here”…

a pop of red and flash in the last hurrah of the fall…

or the crispness of winter set against a brilliant sky.

all colors of peace…

A wall of wool at Brooklyn General Store. Jamiesons Spindrift (Shetland yarn)

One of my top reasons I knit is for the color…I choose yarn that represents the landscape…

Knitting is a story… not one word at a time but a stitch at a time. A story about place, or love, or compassion.

Peace nugget #3

Today is art day! I have long had the desire to paint. It’s one of those persistent dreams… learn to paint. I’ve taken workshops and set “goals” only to have all of it fizzle away. It’s not that I don’t like it it’s just that I have other activities that always come first… knitting, reading, writing…

Years ago, I went on a long bike ride. Before cell phones (maybe even before the internet)… by myself for 2 weeks along the Washington and Oregon coast camping all the way. I wanted a way to creatively express the beauty that was everywhere. In my paniers, I’d packed a few I colored pencils and I began making color swatches…

the bursting purple of the blackberries alongside the road… a scribble of purple

the depths of richness of the Pacific Ocean… a scribble of blue-green

In the photo above, I made a “mood” panel. I swatched five colors of how I felt that day and made little notes.

Let’s make a peace panel…

five colors that represent peace …

the possibilities are limitless.

You don’t need many supplies… crayons, colored pencils, watercolor pencils (my favorite), paper, etc.

And if you don’t have those supplies, get creative. Maybe you want to make some peace panels with fabric scraps, or yarn left-overs…

Leave a comment… what color is peace to you and why?

Other…

Thank you for all your comments about the birds. Truly inspiring. I love reading how birds have made an impact on your lives.

If you want to read more on color and knitting, check out the work of Kate Davies and Felicity Ford (scroll down to read her blog posts about a color project throughout Advent).

My friend Dotty from The Net Loft offers lots of online watercolor workshops at no cost.

Day 2... for the Birds

I never gave much thought to birds as there weren’t that many where I grew up in Colorado. I can recall hawks and magpies… the first I really like, the others I do not.

Then, in Montana, there were a few more types of birds including hawks and magpies. Canada geese flew through in the fall. Plus some other brown birds… There were too many magpies. Did I mention, I do not care for those birds.

And then, I moved to Iowa… bald eagles, lots of hawks, owls, warblers, cardinals, starlings, house finches, trumpter swans and loads of Canada geese in the winter, some migrating pelicans, multiple types of woodpeckers, orioles in June… the list goes.

There are no magpies.

But there are redwing blackbirds, cowbirds, and bluejays.

I do not care for these birds. They dive bomb me on my walks (redwing blackbirds), poach the nests of other birds (cowbirds), and frighten the other birds away from the feeder (bluejays). How dare they?

So, what do these all these birds have to do with peace?

First, it’s easy to see the beauty… from the goldfinches, warblers, cardinals, woodpeckers, hawks, owls, and bald eagles. All exquisite.

Choosing peace is easy when it’s pretty…

The birds have also shown me that peace cannot be defined by beauty alone… Why don’t I like those other birds? They certainly bother me by interrupting my peaceful “walk through nature,” and they are mean to other birds. What’s there to like? Why are those birds the way they are? There are many explanations for their behavior as a result of their own environment.

Peace needs to be considered from multiple perspectives

Let’s dig a little deeper using this analogy of birds and peace… why were there no birds in my hometown of Colorado or Montana? I honestly never noticed the lack of birds in those places until I moved to Iowa where they are abundant.

Perhaps there are no birds in the mountains of the western US

or maybe, I was not paying attention.

I was focused on my own life. I was oblivious to anything outside of “my” world.

Peace needs us to be aware of our surroundings…

of the easy and the challenging

and to notsimply turn away from what we “do not like.”

My thoughts on birds as metaphors of peace are extensive. More than what we can address here today. Before I go, I want to share one other lesson learned from the birds. This one is from a recent trip to Shetland (July 2023).

I have long wanted to see the puffins… those cute little birds who spend approximately 8 months of the year at sea and then make their way to land in the summer to mate, watch over the eggs, and then a short stint with puffling rearing before all leave and head back to sea. They are the cutest!

Puffin at Sumbrugh Head, Shetland, UK

I’d been so captivated by images of puffins prior to my trip, I even planned out the colors for a sweater (aka jumper) inspired by the puffins.

I loved knitting this yoke as each combination of colors represented the puffins… the white, black, and orange of their bodies, the orange and pink duo reminded me of their feet standing in the blooming sea pinks, the green and the black reflective of their deep dives into the water for the “silvers” (small fish). That month in Shetland, I knit this yoke, each stitch symbolizing the interaction of the puffins with their environment.

While it was amazing to finally see them… it was a different bird that seemed to really speak to me. Also a black and white bird with orange accents called the oystercatcher. The puffin jumper became a story about the puffins and the oystercatchers.

Photo of artwork by Linda Richardson

And then I began seeing other birds… curlews, arctic terns, razorbacks, comorants, great skuas, wrens, fulmars… a whole new world of birds, one that I never could have imagined. The birds taught me the need to stay open to possibilities and that life isn’t about a grand plan…

I went to see the puffins yet learned to widen my gaze… to the land, sea, and sky.

The potential for peace is everywhere…

it’s not defined by beauty,

it’s easy and challenging,

exists in the calm as well as the storm,

and needs us to be open to possibility and alternative perspectives.

Peace nugget #2

Take some time today to watch some birds… up in the sky, in the trees, at a bird feeder, along a river, at the lake, or seaside. Allow yourself some slow time to watch.

Prompt: How might birds be teaching you something about peace?

Other:

Thank you so much for all your amazing comments yesterday. I read every single one of them … all 96 of them so far! This platform makes it challenging for me to comment yet please know that I am reading and smiling. This is a space of hope. Thank you.

Leave a comment every day and I’ll send you a little something at the end of our 21 day adventure.

Pattern: Roost pullover by Savory Knitting

Yarn: Jamieson’s and Smith 2-ply jumper weight

Day 1... peace in Action

And so we begin…

Prairie Horizons Farm, Minnesota

For those of you who are new or just want a little reminder of how Project Peace came to be, I thought it might be nice to take a very quick trip down memory lane.

Project Peace was an idea that surfaced during a coffee date in the fall of 2015 with a dear friend… we were chatting, or most likely I was chatting and she was listening, when I stated outloud, “what if I were to create a knitting pattern that was about peace and people all over the world were knnitting it at the same time, that would be my version of world peace.” We chuckled at the silly idea.

But that little idea persisted... a whisper of an idea until it was a full on roar.

So, I wrote a pattern and published it on Ravelry just days after the US Presidential election… I’d hoped that 100 people would take up the offer to join me for 21 days in that month of December 2016. They say timing is everything and it was a very unsettling time for many people … over 20,000 people downloaded that pattern with 1000s joining from around the world on the blog for the 21 days.

Was it world peace? Now I suppose that depends on your definition… and that becomes a very important part of this conversation.

And then we just kept going… for 5 years, gathering each December in this little corner of the internet, knitting and sharing ideas of peace.

The enthusiasm and receptivity for talking about peace, knitting for peace, finding creative ways to name and create peace in our days has been incredible. We really do need to have more of these conversations.

I can also add that the resistance to these conversations is real. I’ve encountered push-back in multiple places out in the “world,” the specifics not needed… yet my take-aways have strengthened my resolve to continue to talk about peace in creative and innovative ways.

Here we are on this first morning of December in 2023 and there’s a lot to process if you think about all that has happened around the globe since that first morning of December 2016. Conflict, violence, oppression, wars, genocide, hunger, famine, pandemic, illness, the list goes on and some of it keeps repeating. It’s horrific, daunting, and can be overwhelming if one is inclined to want to put an end to this way of being.

“Ours is not the task of fixing the world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach...”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

We must stretch ourselves to mend what is within our reach. What is within your reach? Substituting “create peace” for the word “mend” is thought-provoking. We must create peace for the part of the world that is within our reach.

What does peace mean?

To you?

What does it look like to put peace in action?

What does it mean to move this simple 5 letter word from a feeling to

actionable?

Take a moment.

Close your eyes.

What does peace look like?

What does peace sound like?

What does peace feel like?

In the past year, I learned to be intentional with defining peace. I had to. You see, this simple little word means so many different things to people. And if you want to have an effective conversation about peace … you better be clear about what peace means. Otherwise, people will use their definition and I’ve found you might not be on the same page.

To me, peace is relationships with

self

others

and the Earth.

This is my condensed definition from the Earth Charter.

Peace nugget #1

Today, I leave you with two suggestions.

1. Make space in your day to be intentional about pausing. You pick the amount of time… and maybe you want to start small and increase over the next 21 days. Time to allow stillness to be part of your day…. maybe it’s time seated in a chair, feet firmly planted on the ground with your eyes closed. Or maybe it’s wrapping your hands around your cup of tea or coffee, looking outside, and watching the trees, birds, or ocean depending on your landscape. This is your time to go slow.

2. Grab a piece of paper (or a notebook/journal), set a timer and write for 5 minutes without stopping to the following prompt:

   What is peace in action?

   Other things:

   Leave a comment about what peace means to you… in a way that is actionable. For example, using my definition that focuses on relationships, I can hone in relationships that need mending, nurturing, enrichment… whether it’s with myself, others, or the Earth.

   As a reminder, leave a comment every day and I’ll send you a little something at the end of Project Peace. Plus, I’ll do a random drawing for some yarn to use in a shawl.

   peace with each stitch and step

   Christina xx

Project peace 2.0: walking the path...

“Remember... do this, don’t let you and your expectations stand in the way. Don’t let you and your fear of being wrong, making mistakes stop you. SURRENDER TO YOUR MEDIOCRITY”

— Cheryl Strayed

Hello… it’s been a long while.

Where has the time gone?

Here…that’s where I have been.

How is the here of where you are?

Time has a way of slipping through our fingers like fine sand on a beach…

Here we are on the last day of November, a special day in my books as it is the day my first born came into this world. Today he turns that age he can no longer be on my health insurance… and so it begins, a(nother) new chapter in our lives.

It’s also the day before what has been the beginning of Project Peace… an annual offering I began in 2016 to bring a little bit of positivity to the world.

A time to

knit for peace…

reflect on peace…

embrace peace…

embody peace.

And then, life seemed to catch up with me… wearing the multiple hats that so many of us do… for me that’s mother, wife, daughter, employee, friend, creative, wanderer, an empty-nester, and a woman carrying a lot of grief over the loss of her father plus a list of friends that seems to get longer each year.

Something had to give… and in the last two years, a lot has been released into the compost pile. Some to give back to the Earth, others to be reimagined. I truly had to turn inward and finally, after two years of a lot of reading, writing, time in Shetland, lots of walks in the woods, and a few key friends, it’s time to emerge.

Project Peace was one of those things that had to be set aside. Although Project Peace was shelved, my work in the sphere of peace continued. Inspired by so many of you and your engagement in what peace means in today’s world, I’ve taken my work with peace to my day job… I now actively study and explore the intersection of food and peace. Presentations, a manuscript, a “peace educator” award, and a book… all inspired by our time together during Project Peace.

Yet that little voice in my head keeps whispering … rekindle Project Peace… let it have new life. As this voice got louder, so did my fears of “what do I have to say?” “what if I am out of ideas?” “what if it’s no good?” And then an email with a nudge from one of you… please, can we try this again?

And then I found this quote by Cheryl Strayed

Oh, Cheryl … you called my bluff.

You saw my need for perfectionism…

You reminded me that silence is not the answer…

The fear of saying the wrong thing

at the wrong time is not what

this world needs right now…

“surrender to mediocrity”

So, here we go…

Project Peace 2.0… reimagined… at a time when the words don’t come easy but I’m going to dig deep.

Our theme… pathways of peace.

What can you expect?

Each morning I’ll post on the blog by 7 am (central time). You will receive an email that will link you to the website.

There is no Project Peace knitting pattern this year… I will leave it to you to decide what project you want to knit (if that’s for you). I will, however, suggest a couple patterns… first, there are former Project Peace patterns that might be suit your needs, search “Project Peace” on Ravelry). A pattern I discovered last year is at the top of my list to knit during this month… it’s a straight forward knit that doesn’t require a lot of attention plus the final product is easy to wear. It’s the Anica shawl. Take a look on Ravelry.

A couple of years ago, I encouraged everyone to leave a comment following each daily post. This seemed to work well and created a sense of community. I would love to promote this again… and for every person who posts each day for the 21 days, I’ll do a random drawing and send you some yarn to use for an Anica shawl. Plus, I’ll do something (to be determined) for every person who posts daily.

My intention is to create a little place of refuge for you during the next 21 days. A way to slow down, bring some stillness into your day regardless of whether it’s winter or summer for you. I’ll provide some musings about peace, a practical tip for the day, perhaps a prompt, a recipe, a link to some music…

I’ve definitely learned that carving out a little time in the day whether it’s early morning before the break of dawn, an intentional step away from the computer if you’re at work, or in the evening when the dark descends… that I must make the time. It doesn’t just happen. You pick the length of time… 15 minutes? 30 minutes? 60 minutes? Maybe it’s time you spend with your knitting, or reading the post and then writing, or even sitting in the quiet with your feet firmly planted on the ground allowing the stillness to envelope you.

Please, join me for the next 21 days as we explore pathways of peace…

I hope to see you “here” tomorrow…

peace xx