Jan’s Blog Posts

Is peace hard to find in ANY culture?

I may have stumbled onto a peaceful culture last week. While on a birthday trip with a dear gal friend, we visited Tuzigoot National Monument in Arizona. Tuzigoot, a First Nation word for “crooked water,” is a description of the nearby Verde River snaking its path through the Verde Valley.

Stone-by-stone the Hisatsinom, meaning “ancient people,” built a layered condo (or ridge-top pueblo) with 87 ground-floor rooms between 600-1400 AD. There were few exterior doors, as entry was by ladder through roof openings. It is estimated that by1200 the tribe had doubled and continued to thrive until abandoning the desert valley around 1450. Why did they leave their homeland? Did violence play a role? It is believed that some from the tribe migrated north. Violence often is the reason for migrations.

According to a National Park ranger, the later-named Sinagua burial discoveries tell the story of a hunting-gathering peaceful people – no evidence of warrior-style deaths were found. The tribe lived similarly to earlier Hohokam culture in southern and central Arizona. Farming efforts produced maize, squash, and cotton. These game hunters added deer, antelope, bear, muskrat, rabbit, and duck to their diet. A nearby salt deposit was mined, and salt became useful for trading purposes.    

Hisatsinom artisans made pottery and axes for daily use. Some pieces of woven cotton clothing appeared to be tie-dyed! Turquoise ornamentation was common, as turquoise is found where copper and other minerals proliferate. The Verde Valley is a major source of copper. Turquoise is a hydrated phosphate formed through a chemical reaction. Water containing copper and aluminum leaks through rocks to create veins where turquoise appears.

Today we locate leaks in our government.   

Organizational psychologist Adam Grant distinguishes “performance cultures” from “learning cultures.” In the former category, people want to prove themselves; disagreement is viewed as a threat to the managing parts of one’s personality. Learning-culture folks focus on improving themselves; every interaction is viewed as a possibility for learning.

In his book, Think Again, Grant suggests the difficulty in reconsidering any belief that one holds deeply. Making a shift in one’s thinking can feel like a loss of a part of one’s personality. However, re-thinking any topic is what leads to creativity and new possibilities for old problems. In Adams’ view, “We laugh at people who still use Windows 95, yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995.”

 Investigating one’s thoughts can free up ass-umptions (some thoughts that are not one’s best attempts).

Is peace hard to find in your personality? It is no wonder that we do not have peace in our world when we have difficulty finding peace in our own personalities. Was it easier to live peacefully in the desert? There were rattlesnakes around the crooked Verde River. Today we are more challenged by crooked thinking.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

80. When have you challenged your thinking about some previous belief?

81. What new possibilities arose from your reconsideration?  

We often focus on the down-side. There is a reason. According to research, a negativity bias starts showing up in your baby brain. While infants initially pay attention to positive facial expression and tone of voice, this changes with the approach of a first birthday. Brain responses to negative stimuli begin showing a surge in activity in information processing, as if some gagging voice in one’s cranial theater sputters, “Fire!”

People consistently overemphasize negative aspects of an event rather than positives. Survival for our ancestors depended upon being on high alert and we carry a defensive negativity bias forward. We constantly tinker with imagined “what if” scenarios. This ancient survival part of our personality keeps kicking up dust storms. What if _________________? Fill in the blank. Your “what ifs” may be different from mine.

The purpose of “what if-ing” is to preempt disaster from delivering us into Neverland. Remember Peter Pan, leader of the “Lost Boys?” His band of boys were lost from parents, living independently in Neverland. What was Peter’s disaster? Peter looked through a window and saw his parents with a new baby; he assumed his parents did not want him. To make matters worse, in the book version Peter Pan killed the “lost” boys to prevent them from aging!

This drama may represent Scottish author J. M. Barrie’s real-life issues. His early history shows a tragic legacy. When he was 6, his 13-year-old brother died while ice-skating. This brother was his mother’s favorite child. The dear 6-year-old tried, as children often do, to comfort his Mum to no avail. Barrie never grew taller than 5 feet and had a notion that leaving childhood was disastrous.

Whatever your child-speak connotation to Neverland might be, a catch in your throat from feeling “on the outside” of some “window” can linger in your body for a long time. Today we might label such lingering malaise PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Instead of calling PTSD a “disorder,” I’d label it post-traumatic stress development. When you encounter a developmental phase in your life there is a hope for growth. PTSD is rampant in war times, but I see PTSD as a developmental possibility. We sometimes grow most when we are seriously challenged. However, with a focus primarily on negatives (like disorders and pathology), it can seem like a lengthy search to locate positive outcomes.

This reframing in no way takes away from the reality of PTSD as frequently mind-numbing and a difficult staging in any person’s growth efforts. Calling something developmental implies that eventually one has a strong possibility of progressing beyond the initial trauma. Israeli psychologist Amos Tversky warned, “When you are a pessimist and the bad thing happens, you live it twice.”

 Become aware of your negativity searchlights. Rediscover inner lightness in thinking, relating, and overall wellbeing. No rose-colored glasses are needed, but you might smell more roses in your life.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

78. When have you experienced PTSD?

79.  How did you grow from that experience?                

Resilience conveys staying-power in the ability to withstand stressors. What supports resilience? A social support system undergirds resilience. What supportive network kept a piece of pottery intact for 5000+ years? Resilience also has links to having a meaning or purpose. The purpose of pottery sealed into inner protective chambers of Egyptian tombs was to help the deceased transport necessities for an afterlife.

If humans can preserve fragile artifacts for safe-keeping, why not treasure human life itself?

What purposes underlie the excruciating stressors of war?

Evolutionary psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada studied 60 different cultures around the world. While 95% of these groupings of people had some form of blood revenge, 93% of them also included forgiveness or reconciliation. The researchers did not believe that killing was so much an evolutionary edict as it was meant to fulfill some goal. Afterlife was not a consideration, but higher social status placed high on the goal list.

It turns out that humans are not alone in seeking higher status. Chimpanzees have been followed closely since their behavior was highlighted at the Jane Goodall research center in Gombe, Tanzania. Chimps sometimes engage in gang violence and kill their neighbors. Chimpanzee wars result in the winning side gaining members from a losing tribe. Through domination of another community of chimps, the aggressors also expand their territorial range and possible food supply chains. Does this  sound familiar?

The noun resilience comes from Latin resiliens, meaning “to rebound, to recoil.” I picture a slinky when I think of recoiling after being stretched to the max. Slinky resilience occurs over and over, each time reshaping a semblance of “holding together.” Ukrainian mothers are “holding together” as they stand in long lines to get on trains, get off trains, obtain food, find shelter, and most importantly, tend to their precious children. Many women are forced to leave their homeland without partners. Courageous Ukrainian parents and grandparents are today’s pearls of resilience. They deal with the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine with passion and persistence.

One thing we must not hold onto is hatred. The resilient words of Volodymyr Zelensky are for everyone: “Don’t let rage destroy us from the inside.”

Look carefully at the spiraling circles holding onto Egyptian pottery. It is curious to find in another part of the planet that similar swirls were carved into stone at the Newgrange Stone Age passage tomb in Ireland around 3200 BCE (blog post, Pearls and Swirls, 1-10-22). I wrote then about an “interdependent wholeness.” I did not imagine a war-ravaging crack about to shatter our coming months.       

Resilience is a possibility for all of us. It works best when we are “holding together” with passion and persistence, the definition of “grit.” Remember, pearls are born from grit.  

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

76. When do you use a resilient part of your personality?

77. What can you do today that shows passion and persistence?     

A statue of Eugenio Maria de Hostos (with children dancing overhead) stands in the Plaza de Beneficencia (Charity Square) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sculptor Jose Buscaglia Guillermety honored Hostos’ extensive influence in the region by naming the monument, “The Great Citizen of the Americas.” Hostos believed that independence in Puerto Rico and Cuba was a possibility and worked tirelessly to accomplish his goal. He was disappointed when the U.S. rejected his proposals. Not all possibles make it to the finish line.

And yet, Hostos was successful in other possibilities. He traveled extensively and reorganized educational systems in the Dominican Republic (establishing a Teachers College despite local opposition of churches), in Peru (advocating for Chinese people living there) and in Chile. As a professor at the University of Chile he campaigned to allow women into colleges in 1873. Also, Hostos was successful in the development of a railroad system between Chile and Argentina with the first locomotive given his name!

Hostos’ essays covered sociology, psychology, literature, law, and philosophy. He earned acclaim as one of Latin America’s first systematic sociologists. He valued a growth mindset for his culture. Hostos held onto possibles despite great challenges.

In First Nation peoples there is a tradition of a “possibles bag.” Originally, these were leather pouches containing something from the plant world, animal world, mineral world as well as something from human life. For example, one’s possibles bag might hold seeds, herbs, animal teeth or claws, feathers, rocks and bones that were believed to possess some spiritual value. The meaning of a possibles bag includes the fact that plants and animals provide what one needs for life sustenance, while a feather can “smudge” with sweetgrass or sage smoke to invoke spirituality.

Later the possibles bag was adopted by frontiersmen. Their collection also was motivated by “needs”–tobacco and pipe, tin cup, jerky and other edibles, knife, black powder, powder measurer, and flint. A gun slung over the shoulder perhaps was most valued among their day-packing items. What represented their spirituality?

Today we might ask ourselves the same question about spirituality.

On daily TV grinding-down news, I cringe when I see soldier after soldier bearing heavy backpacks to hold onto sustenance. Perhaps they carry pictures of loved ones? One side carries an invisible possibles bag of hopes for independence from an aggressor. The other side must have an invisible possibles bag too. What are their values and hopes?

The war in Ukraine rages on with relentless numbers of families torn asunder–both innocent bystander families and families losing soldiers on both sides.

Surely, we can do better in packing our own invisible possibles bag. Writer Annie Dillard muses, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

74. What causes, activities, or groups have you joined as an ardent supporter?

75. What part does spirituality and/or religion play in your possibilities?   

Grief is not a one-size-fits-all process. Everyone grieves in their own way but if you experience unresolved grief, that process can take decades. Prince Harry was only 12 when Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident. He admitted that he could not grapple with the painful loss initially: “…shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but also my work as well,” Prince Harry said in an interview. He credits his brother, Prince William, for guiding him to seek professional help.

When you grieve, you may not meet your basic daily needs. Your energy level may flag, your previous discipline for school/work may be compromised, your creativity is on-hold, your belongingness suffers (often fearing the loss of other relationships), and you feel stymied in meeting your ability potential. Speaking from its own version of sign language, your body’s immunity may lower. Intense emotions bluster through you and/or a protective numbness can blanket any emotional expression.  

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ stage-theory of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – was never meant as linear stepping-stones. You may or may not experience every stage. Thoughts flip-flop, making you feel ill-equipped for life. All of us are beginners with grieving.

A helpful model of grieving, the Pinwheel Model of Bereavement, is based upon nursing research of Susan Carter and clinical work of Ann Solari-Twadell and colleagues at Loyola University, Chicago. There is no specific resolution, or one set of stages to master in grieving.

Picture a toy pinwheel set into motion by an initiating wind of loss. To not only survive, but to thrive after loss, consider the very center of the pinwheel as your personal history. The turning and spinning of your grieving depends upon your core resilience as built up over your lifetime so far. Consider these aspects when loss blows into your life:

Being stopped or interrupted;                                                                                                    Pain and hurting emotions;

A missing or yearning for all that has been lost;

A holding desire, often holding onto what was good about someone;

A seeking of meaning, comfort, support, and

Valuing what matters most and provides meaning in life.

While a smell, place, or season of the year can trigger fresh grieving, you turn more and more toward an openness to present moments with time. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine and the relatives/friends of Russian soldiers. The winds of war devastate countless families over millenniums.

Grieving is a whirlwind of conflicting emotion that whiplashes every aspect of life. However, consider how the whirlwind is an ancient symbol of some First Nation people. A whirlwind was believed to sweep out old crevices to allow openness to the “new.” Can that “new” be peace? Hope is possible. Alongside U.S. and German astronauts, Russian cosmonauts collaborate peacefully at the International Space Station.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

 72. When have you experienced a whirlwind of grief?

73. What “new” possibilities were you able to embrace?      

A textile artist born during forced segregation in South Africa, Igshaan Adams’ enmeshed designs may be interpreted to represent familial relationships and generational trauma amidst socio-political discrimination. His art pays tribute to “gaps,” or invisible spaces in his work. Using beads, shells, glass, rope, wire, and “found objects,” his weavings pulse with meaning. One three-dimensional installation has lead pipes piercing both the weaving and the surrounding air. Is the weaving a sheltering tent…or a flimsy cover-up for truth?

Adams’ recent exhibition is entitled “Desire Lines” which he intends as a metaphor for weaving an individual’s life roadways into a merging collective with others’ paths. Underlying Adams’ work is a poignant probe: “How would you treat someone differently if you knew everything about them? Or nothing?”

We do not know very much about other people. Perhaps we cannot grasp the meaning of another’s life because they never share their innermost angst with anyone. Is it because they deem their experiences as unacceptable? Perhaps they do not want to hear imagined criticism from others: “Really? You did what?”

What if we knew the ACE’s score of everybody? ACE’s stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences, a 10-question survey about traumatic challenges that a child may experience before age 18. The questions do not mince words: Did you…lack protection as a child (including not having enough food to eat); …lose a parent through divorce, abandonment or death; …live with anyone who was depressed, mentally ill, or attempted suicide? Did anyone in the family have a problem with drinking/drugs; did anyone go to jail or prison? Did your parents… ever hit, beat, or threaten each other; …ever swear at you or put you down; …ever hit, beat, or physically hurt you? Did you feel that no one in your family loved you? Did you experience unwanted sexual contact?

Perhaps you will take the survey: https://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/

Rob­ert Anda, M.D., from CDC, in partnership with Vincent Felitti, M.D., from Kaiser Permanente (California), conducted the Adverse Childhood Experiences study which linked childhood trauma with increased health/social problems across adulthood. The amount of personal suffering found in the initial population of 17,000 adults taking the survey surprised the co-authors, as participants were mostly middle and upper-middle class with college educations. They lived in California with good jobs and health care benefits.

Yet, 87% of the participants reported 1+ traumatizing childhood experiences. The research uncovered tragic numbers of child abuse. As one’s ACE score increases, the risk of disease, social and emotional problems can escalate. For example, ACE scores of 4+ link to a likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increasing 390%; depression increasing 460%; or attempted suicide increasing 1,220%.

Poet Maya Angelou weaves trauma into beauty through words:  “…prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you….”

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

70. What did you endure as a child?

71. In what ways do you share your invisible stories?     

We want our children to be creative problem-solvers. U.S. preschools and kindergartens brim with creativity! Then we take most toys out of classrooms of first graders. Perhaps when we do not see much creative problem-solving in adulthood, a creativity drop-off started with misguided educational ideas that toys cannot be learning tools from ages 6-onward.

I loved using psychotherapy techniques that incorporated toys in my private practice. As a family therapist my clients ranged from ages 3-83 (many grandparents were raising grandchildren). A sand tray with tiny figurines was a favorite among all ages. It was not uncommon for an adolescent or adult to pick up one of many puppets in my office and hold it part-way through a session. Some teens took two puppets to illustrate some scene from a difficult interaction they had endured at school. Many people talk best when their hands are moving.

Some companies understand the need for toying with different moves than desk-sitting delivers. A Google office has a slide to get between floors! Employees enjoy company game rooms with a pool table and other “toys” like arcade-favorite Ms. Pac-Man. One Google office that I visited was stimulating with a variety of games present amidst vibrantly painted walls.

This brings me to question whether Mr. Putin had an enriched childhood with ample play time. My guess is no. David Hoffman (The Washington Post) claims that Putin learned, “…[to] never show weakness because the weak are always defeated.” Other writers tell of horrific times in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where Putin was born. During World War II most of the population of 3 million in Leningrad were killed. It was termed a genocide. This is an ominous cultural legacy for any child.

Prior to Putin’s birth, his parents lost two sons—one died in infancy and the second son died from diphtheria. The family grief must have been torturous. Both parents worked and one wonders who took care of the young Putin when his parents were at work. Reportedly, Putin was bullied in childhood. He learned judo and became an expert at sambo, a Russian sport combining judo with wrestling. In high school he played handball and worked on the school’s radio station. His fascination with spy movies may have led to a career with the Russian secret service or KGB.

We cope with tragedy and grief legacies by first acknowledging them. When unresolved grief piles up through generations, it is challenging for any person. Creative problem-solving is not the first thing on one’s mind. Filling the potholes of grieving can take on strange actions. In the movie “The Interpreter,” Nicole Kidman says, “Vengeance is a lazy form of grief.”

Is it ironic that there are mass killings (genocide?) happening in Ukraine? Does history HAVE to repeat itself?  

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

68. What legacy in your family may have a huge effect upon your current life?

69. How do you decide to have “peace table talks” in your personal conflicts?                                    

Polarization is undermining our planet. What will it take for the Ukrainian people to have peace in their corner? I listen to the month-long impassioned words of Volodymyr Zelensky and wonder what it will take to bring his country’s people back together again. Like the old rhyme about Humpty Dumpty, I wonder if all the king’s weapons and all the king’s men CAN bring back Ukraine’s 3.3 million scattered-to-the-four-winds refugees.

There is a story or two about Humpty Dumpty. Some tout the simple version; it is just a riddle about things breaking down. From other minds, Humpty may represent King Richard III of England. Was he humpbacked? History tells that Richard was brutally defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Later dubbed the War of the Roses, battling sides spilled blood from 1455-1485. Why? The homeland was polarized between Lancaster (red-rose territory) and York (white rose-land). Never mind that the rosy-war label did not appear until the 19^th century.

History reveals Richard to be a bad egg who clawed his way to power by killing his brothers, nephews, and anyone else who stood in opposition to his claim to “King-dum” rights. Richard rationalized his actions as “security” measures for his country.

The egg-enhanced story came from Lewis Carroll’s novel, Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871. However, the name, Humpty Dumpty, pre-dates the iconic pictures of a wall-climber egg-shaped Humpty.

A weapons’ version of Humpty Dumpty suggests that this was no egghead, but rather Humpty was a name given to a cannon fired by the Royalists during the English Civil War. The Civil War raged from 1642-1649. The cannon’s position was on the walls of Colchester and it did indeed suffer a fatal fall, along with King Charles I who lost the war along with his head. OK, this is grim, but you already know that war is grim.

People have fought in wars seemingly since the beginning of time, whatever timeframe that represents. When is peace possible? Artists, musicians and poets express anguish for all of us over peace possibilities. Emily Dickinson captures the essence of this angst in these lines:  

I many times thought Peace had come

When Peace was far away—

As Wrecked Man—deem they sight the Land—

At Centre of the Sea…

How many fictitious Shores—

Before the Harbor be–

Yet, we must not give up on the possibility of peace for the planet. The resilient Ukrainians believe in peace. They elevated their national flower, the sunflower, to peace-symbol status. (See Peace as Your Legacy Blog, 3-7-22.) Let’s restore the lovely rose to a peace-time image.

We need to turn a corner or two and intend to make peace possible – in our families and our communities. Start small. Handle one polarization in your life at a time. Let’s make peace in our own daily lives.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

66. What seems polarized in your life today?

67. How might you model peace-making for those around you

History matters. Tomorrow is the Ides of March. “Beware of the Ides of March” is a phrase from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. This was not frivolous theater; actually, the historical Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, was stabbed to death in the Roman senate in 44 BC on March 15th. “Barbaric!” you say. Yes, and barbaric events keep occurring both within and without senate walls.    

“I can’t watch the news. It’s just too grim.” Have you said this? I have said this some days. Yes, there is heinous behavior in the world. There is also altruistic behavior.

Our humanity task is to discover how NOT to turn our backs on world suffering, but to look for ways to initiate altruism. Contrary to what one might assume, there is evidence to show that when a natural catastrophe or some other frightful tragedy occurs, mutual helping is more often the case than pillaging or other forms of individualistic behavior. Examples of altruism are multiplying daily in extending aid to 2.6 million migrants who are fleeing Ukraine. Pearls of altruism for the wellbeing of others string together when courage trumps faint-heartedness and a sense of calm overrides fear.

We might learn something from some of the oldest living birds on our planet. The earliest sandhill crane fossil found in Florida dates back 2.5 million years. Following the end of the last ice age, migrating sandhill cranes have gathered along the narrow Platte River in Nebraska during mid-March. The annual reunion of cranes numbers over one-half million this year. Sandhill cranes are omnivorous, but 90% of their take-out diet comes from taking out left-over grain in nearby corn fields. Every evening singing crane choirs return to the sandbars of the Platte River where the cranes protect each other from coyotes. Unrelated cranes roost together in survival groups.    

I was mesmerized one spring when I spent a week volunteering at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary along the Platte shoreline. At dawn and dusk volunteers give tours from protected blinds for tourists from all over the world. In their mass fly-aways at sunrise, crane roaring gave me goosebumps. Smaller groupings returning to sandbars offered sunset lullabies. Spectacular almost describes it! Cranes symbolize balance with beauty. Their courtship features fancy “dancing,” well, leaping into the air, while cooing their love songs. I was totally charmed one foggy morning by this sight.

Cranes model living in harmony with others. With a lifespan of 20-40 years, sandhill cranes mate for life. Both parents work together to build a nest for junior; both take turns sitting on the eggs. Resilient baby sandhill cranes, called colts, fly with their parents one day after their hatching.

We are not people of one feather, but we might expand who is in our “in-group.” Altruism is an inclusive possibility.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

64. When have you engaged in altruism?

65. How might you expand altruism toward others?                   

Do you wish to make the world a better (and more peaceful) place?

Joan Halifax, Abbot of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, writes, “We can nurture peace by transforming our own lives…we must work actively for nonviolence toward all…[nurturing] deep and true dialogue with respect for and appreciation of differences…we all live under each other’s skin.”

Yes, along with inherited legacies, we do live “under each other’s skin.” The video of a brave Ukrainian woman confronting a heavily-armed Russian soldier on a street corner in Henychesk gave my skin chills. She asked what the soldier is doing in Ukraine. He replied, “We have exercises here.” She asked, “What kind of exercises?” and then with emotion, “What the #^&* are you doing on our land with all these guns?” She commanded the Russian soldier to take her sunflower seeds and put them in his pockets so that sunflowers will grow in the soil upon his death in Ukraine.

I am (belatedly) learning Ukrainian history. It includes sunflowers, a legacy symbol of peace for Ukraine. In June, 1996, Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. Defense ministers from U.S., Russia, and Ukraine joined in planting sunflowers at Pervomaysk missile base. This is significant as Ukraine inherited the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in the 1991 Soviet Union collapse.

The sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower, however sunflower history predates the country. Sunflowers were nurtured as a crop by indigenous tribes from 3000 BC. First Nation North Americans cultivated sunflowers in present-day Arizona/New Mexico to produce large flowerheads. It is possible that sunflowers were a staple domestic crop before corn! Besides milling sunflowers for flour to bake bread and cooking with sunflower oil, creative uses included turning plant pigments into “sunscreens” and clothing dyes.

Spanish sailors pocketed sunflower seeds for Europe where the seeds migrated to Russia and Ukraine. However, it was the Russian Orthodox Church that elevated sunflowers to prominence. The 18^th century Church hierarchy banned foods made from a variety of oils for Lent. Sunflower oil somehow escaped this ban! The demand for sunyashniki, or sunflowers, blossomed into an important commodity. Ukraine and Russia supply 70% of the world’s sunflower oil exports. Sunflower oil ranks as the fourth most important oil crop in the world (after palm, soybean, and rapeseed oil). Who knew?

A legacy is about learning from the past while living in the present moment. A legacy of peace sometimes seems elusive, but there is peace as well as war in our past and present. A Greek proverb reminds, “A society grows great when old [women] and men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” Who will be left in Ukraine to plant sunflowers for coming generations?

Who remembers the Ukrainian legacy of peace from 1996?

Gardeners unite. Let us plant sunflowers this spring.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

62. What legacy of peace can you cherish?

63. How might you leave peace as an aspect of your own legacy?