today let us celebrate that love conquers all!!!

feel free to print this graphic and enjoy it!!! <3

 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;

 indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 

Margaret Mead

a few weeks ago I posted this quote and information about a champaign started by my good friends called the Rainbow Peace Flag Project, a way to show support and love and community especially in the aftermath of the violence and horror that happened in Orlando, FL.  The movement grew here in Natick and beyond however, this past weekend it started going viral.  The press became interested because some person/persons vandalized a couples home here in Natick and took the flag.  A sad story, yes, however it has turned into a great story because of the way the friends and neighbors in the community responded.  As soon as news spread of this horrible act, the couple's neighbors all got peace flags and hung them on their houses.  One image from that afternoon that I LOVE is that of the kids on bicycles zipping around the neighborhood delivering flags!! 

This is a hopefully story, a story about community and love and a story that I am glad has gone viral and one which I wish to continue to share, because in this time of so much fear and blame and hate we can NOT have too many stories of love, community and acceptance. 

Below I have put links to the story in the Boston Globe, a beautiful youtube video of the Peace Flag bedecked neighborhood, an article on CNN and the link to the Cuffed.org campaign where you too can get involved!!! 

#LOVECONQUERSALL

The Rainbow Peace Flag Project

By Common Street Spiritual Center Join the movement and let’s fly rainbows all over Natick, the Metrowest area and beyond! 

Get your free flag. Donate if you would like.

one of the many flags flying in Natick thanks to the Rainbow Peace Project

article in the boston globe.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/08/22/gay-couple-targeted-neighborhood-united/F1AYqZ1n1qiwCarKt8XcxL/story.html?event=event25

Video of the amazing neighborhood

After gay couple's home is vandalized, a community rallies

as seen on CNN: A gay couple in Massachusetts is targeted by vandals who stole their rainbow flag, egged their home.More than two dozen homes in the neighborhood put up rainbow flags in solidarity

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Be the Change!!! Join this group of thoughtful, committed citizens!!!

May we all work for peace, love and understanding!!!! 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 

Margaret Mead

below you will find a link to a wonderful project started by my dear friend and favorite yoga teacher, Maggie Sky.  

She is walking the walk of being an agent for change.  

She and Rev. Ian Mevorach, founding pastor of the Common Street Spiritual Center want to bring a wave of rainbow to the community. They want to get as many rainbow flags flying as possible so they are giving away free flags!! 

It is a way to show our support for 

 Peace, Solidarity, Diversity, and Inclusion  (click here)

At this time all the flags are only available for pick-up, 

but as my way of supporting this awesome movement

I wish to offer to ship a rainbow flag to anyone who wants to join this rainbow celebration by flying a rainbow flag.  

So if you wish to join the project but are not local either leave a comment below or message me via Facebook or email me and I will send you a flag!!  

Be the change!!! 

Join this group of thoughtful, committed citizens!!!

PEACE!!!

 if you have received this post as an email

click below to visit the entire blog, blog link

or click below to visit FB daily dress inspiration group FB link

Be the Change!!! Join this group of thoughtful, committed citizens!!!

May we all work for peace, love and understanding!!!! 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. 

Margaret Mead

below you will find a link to a wonderful project started by my dear friend and favorite yoga teacher, Maggie Sky.  

She is walking the walk of being an agent for change.  

She and Rev. Ian Mevorach, founding pastor of the Common Street Spiritual Center want to bring a wave of rainbow to the community. They want to get as many rainbow flags flying as possible so they are giving away free flags!! 

It is a way to show our support for 

 Peace, Solidarity, Diversity, and Inclusion  (click here)

At this time all the flags are only available for pick-up, 

but as my way of supporting this awesome movement

I wish to offer to ship a rainbow flag to anyone who wants to join this rainbow celebration by flying a rainbow flag.  

So if you wish to join the project but are not local either leave a comment below or message me via Facebook or email me and I will send you a flag!!  

Be the change!!! 

Join this group of thoughtful, committed citizens!!!

PEACE!!!

 if you have received this post as an email

click below to visit the entire blog, blog link

or click below to visit FB daily dress inspiration group FB link

May this story bring you hope . . .

“We’re not just sending dresses, we’re sending HOPE!”  Little Dresses for Africa's website

Today I learned the inspiring story of Lillian Weber, a 99 year old woman who spends her days sewing beautiful dressesfor little girls in Africa.  And once again I think to myself, 'the power of a dress'.

I have attached a video of her and the article from Station WQUAD8 , as well as the link tothe charity "Little Dresses for Africa" AND the link to the pillowcase dress pattern they recommend as a dress to make, so you too can join Lillian.

I find this entire story so uplifting and hopeful at this time when news from around the world and home is so grim.  And for those who might scoff at the effects that little girl dresses can have on world matters  . . .

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being. Miriam Makeba

Research shows the presence of women raise the standards of ethical behavior and lowers corruption. Hillary Clinton 

In fact I was so moved that I m going to make a pillowcase dress (or more) and send it off, and/or host a dress making party!!  But for now cheer, cheer to Lillian Weber!!




or Click here to see the video

& here is the article from  WQUAD8's website :

Lillian Weber is on a mission.

Every day she makes another dress for a small child she’ll never meet.

“I could probably make two a day, but I only make one,” she says.

The dresses are collected and sent overseas to little girls in Africa by a Christian outreach group called “Little Dresses for Africa”.

“I have to be busy,” says Lillian.

And she’s been very busy.

In the past two years she’s made more than 840 dresses and she plans to make 150 more by May 6th of next year.

You see, by next May, Lillian will turn 100 years old and it will be her one thousandth dress.

“It’s just one of those things you learn how to do and enjoy,” she says.

In Lillian’s Scott County farm house are completed dresses for little girls, made from a pattern, but each with extra stitching and individual details, designed to give each child a little extra pride.

“She personalizes them all,” says Lillian’s daughter, Linda Purcell. “It’s not like good enough that she makes the dresses, she has to put something on the front to make it look special, to give it her touch.”

What started as a hobby has become a daily labor of love.

Lillian says she starts work on a dress in the morning, takes a break during the midday, and puts finishing touches in the afternoon.

“I just think she’s somebody to look up to, somebody whose not just sitting around and frittering her life away,” says Tonya Urbatsch, who nominated Lillian for the “Pay It Forward” award.

“I’m amazed at her every day,” adds Linda. “I’m very, very proud of my mother.”

Family and friends will continue to be proud of Lillian, well after her 1000th dress. After all, 1000 is just a number.

“When I get to that thousand, if I’m able to. I won’t quit. I’ll go at it again because there’s no reason to not do nothing.”

When Lillian is finished with her dresses, her daughters deliver them to a Davenport senior living apartment complex where a group of residents have a weekly sewing appointment to make dresses for the charitable organization.

“Little Dresses for Africa” is a Christian charitable organization founded in 2008 in Michigan.

Its founder, Rachel O’Neill, says 2.5 million dresses have been distributed.

The simple dresses are distributed to orphanages, churches, and schools in Africa.

Rachel says she’s traveling to Africa again in September 2014 and February 2015 and hopes to be able to present to a child one of the dresses personally made by Lillian.

Desperate times call for . . .

It was only a week ago that I wrote that I was taking some time off from my blog so I could do some personal work, and I have tackled some of my 'to-do's that I have been avoiding for years.
But this morning, after the bombardment of heart-wrenchingly horrid news from all corners of the world, I realized I needed to break my silence, to put out a call to all of us to work toward finding peace in our world.

“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals. ” 

― Margaret Mead

With all the craziness in this world today I felt the need a quote about peace, acceptance.  I decided to quote one of the gurus of peace, Nelson Mandela, and as happens so much with my daily dress practice, while looking up this quote I learned that today is Nelson Mandela International Day, a day of service.  It is celebrated today, July 18, Mandela's birthday. If he was still with us he would have been 96 years young today.  so to honor this man and all he brought to this world, let us all put our minds, hearts and souls into creating a more peaceful, accepting and loving world! 

As Margaret Mead so profoundly stated, change is in the passion of individuals, in the hands of a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens.  Let US be that small group!! 

peace, peace & blessed be ~

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ― Margaret Mead

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from the mouth of babes . . . "No wars, no fights, no guns; Forever peace!"*

* from International School of Kenya, primary school, Nairobi, Kenya

Mothers, fathers, why do you fight
when everybody is someone’s child?
Utsjoen saamelaislukio, Utsjoki, Finland**

(**both these quote are from the UN's The Peace Poem, 

read more about the poem below)

Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world. 

Just start thinking peace, 

and the message will spread quicker 

than you think.

Yoko Ono

Once again, on this holiday for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces, I continue my campaign for peace!!

Peace of mind, peace of soul, peace of heart, peace among families, peace among neighbors, peace among friends and enemies and peace on earth!!!

Every moment I am aware of so many who live in constant terror of pain, torture, hunger, death and more; from the hands of strangers, oppressors, enemies and/or sadly dealt out by people they trust and love.  

Today I wish to remind us that we, each one of us, can and has the power to create peace.  There are so many levels on which we need to seek peace and change our cultural acceptance of these violent acts! 

Below is the introduction and some verses from the United Nations' Peace Poem. (click this link to visit the entire poem.)  It is an example of what I have known and believe, children know the horrors of war and know the need for peace, for them it is a no brainer.  What happens as we grow older that causes us to be more accepting of war and terror?!?  I read yesterday about how we teach toddlers to use words, to share, to not use force or not to hit, and they learn.  A kindergartener knows not to hit but somewhere in later years violence becomes ok, as an acceptable evil.  

Read these words from students from around the world and then speak up for peace!!!

Kofi A. Annan's preface for the Peace Poem

In their wisdom, the children whose intermingled voices gave birth to the Peace Poem know that peace is far more than the absence of war. Children know that peace comes from the heart; it lives in the way we see others; it survives in the respect we show our neighbors every day. They also know, often better than adults, that today’s world is a global village and that we are all neighbors.

Ce long poème consacré à la paix, fruit de la réflexion et de la conviction de milliers d’enfants de par le monde, est pour moi comme une guirlande d’espoir qui, par la vertu des nouveaux moyens de télécommunication, ceint notre planète, en se riant des nationalités et des frontières.

Sepamos escuchar a los niños poetas. Sus palabras sencillas y elocuentes nos recuerdan las verdades esenciales, pilares sobre los que sustentan la paz y la concordia : conocer y aceptar a los demás y, en ellos, reconocer nuestra humanidad común.

Peace is the sound of my mom’s heart
when I come in the door safe at night.
Colbert Elementary School
Boca Raton, FL, US

Apologize when you are wrong
It will show that you are strong
Dinkelmeyer School
North Bellmore, NY, US
Don’t fight about your colour.
Love each other like brothers and sisters.
School of the Nations, Primary Section
Macau (Portugal)

May peace be scattered
Like pebbles in a dancing pond of rain
Turquoise Trail Elementary School
Santa Fe, NM, US

Peace in the world is peace in your heart.
If we do not have peace, the world will fall apart.
Dighton Middle School
Dighton, MA, US

Peace is the soft beating of a child’s heart
In the womb of happiness and security
Parktown High School For Girls, middle school
Parkview, South Africa

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

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may this dress bring PEACE!!!

Make me an instrument of your peace. 

Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love. 

Where there is injury . . . pardon. 

Where there is doubt . . . faith. 

Where there is despair . . . hope. 

Where there is darkness . . . light. 

Where there is sadness . . . joy. 

Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181 - 1226)

IT IS TIME NOW TO PRAY. 

ALL TOGETHER 

AND 

FOR THE SAME THING. 

Global Collective Prayer Initiative

Today there is going to be a 

Global Collective Prayer Initiative, 

hosted by two inspirational writers and activists,

Marianne Williamson and Neale Donald Walsch.

When I first saw this event announced I was intrigued. 

Once I read about it, I was committed.

The idea of having a group of people, from all over the world 

(thanks to the internet),

praying for, asking for, thinking about

PEACE ~

it could be profound!!

as the famous Margaret Mead 

quote reminds us:

Never doubt that a 

small group of thoughtful,

committed citizens 

can change the world;

indeed, it's the only thing 

that ever has.

I hope you can join us ~ 

PEACE 

To read more about the Global Prayer Initiative

click here 

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