This month’ s Peace-ology article in Bookology Magazine is about tiny, daily acts of peace. READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN BOOKOLOGY.
Ordinary Acts of Peace
Ellie: When I say the word Peacemaker, who is the first person that comes to mind? It is so important to teach children about famous peacemakers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Malala, and Nelson Mandela. If we only teach about folks who have become larger than life, however, children may put peacemaking on a pedestal that seems unattainable for themselves. We can teach children and remind ourselves that we can choose peacemaking now in the tiny, ordinary moments of the day.
Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson is a book about how one generous deed can change the world. Mary, an ordinary kid, stumbles upon some blueberries and decides to pick them for her neighbor, Ms. Bishop. That tiny act starts a chain reaction of compassion and kindness that spreads throughout the world. Mary’s kind deed loops back to her by the end, when she receives a necklace from someone who is paying kindness forward in a chain that can be traced back to Mary’s blueberries. The book is full of delightful rhymes and examples of how ordinary gestures can multiply into something truly extraordinary. Society would have us believe that love and power are static so that we rush to grab and hoard our piece of the pie before it’s gone. In truth, love and power grow one tiny act at a time.
Questions for Kids
- Who is a peacemaker that you know and want to be like? How can you be more like that person, not just when you grow up, but today?
- Who is someone your age that you see making other people feel good?
- When is a time you received much needed help or an unexpected gift?
- Who is your favorite person to surprise with kindness?
Growing Peace
Caren: At Abbott Northwestern, a hospital close to my home, a hospital chaplain gave a COVID patient a folded paper crane. It was a tiny, compassionate act with an unexpected impact. The patient was encouraged both by the gift and its symbolism: “I will overcome COVID and I will keep this crane for my entire life,” he promised. Hearing this story, Japanese people of all ages made paper cranes and sent them to the hospital as gifts to patients. The hospital received 16,000 cranes, strung them together and used them to decorate the hospital. Senbazuru is a Japanese tradition of stringing together paper cranes as an expression of healing and peace. One crane at a time, these people transformed the hospital so that now it is bursting with color, hope and peace.