My Peace Pole

For Memorial Day I planted my home Peace Pole. I first created this Peace Pole in 1999 and dedicated it on New Year's Eve of 2000 with friends and a big party. It was planted in a large flower pot on the patio of my condo. Since then I have moved from the west coast to the south. I brought the pole with me on top of my car and also, brought another redwood post with the intention to make a new pole for my new home. I stood my peace pole in the garden on the side of my new house but never really planted it. It stayed on my "to do list" for the next 6 years along with making a second Peace Pole. After this new year of 2009 I looked at my redwood post and decided it was time to make my second Peace Pole and give it to Georgia Mountain Unitarian Universalist Church. So, I set to work on it. This sunday we are having a deication event for it. You can read about that in my next blog.

After finishing the new pole I realized that I wanted to give a new life to my old pole. It had weathered due to the fact I never put a seal coat on it. The redwood grays over time without a sealant. I wanted to keep one side to honor the history of the pole but recreated most of the other three sides. I did keep a few pieces of artwork here and there sanding around them. The pole took many hours of sanding, painting and I gave it three coast of sealant. So, between rain showers this past Memorial Day my dad and I planted the pole in our front yard for all to see. A reminder to think about Peace. I leave you with these thoughts from some great minds.

"One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." -William E. Gladstone

"Peace is not achieved by controlling nations, but mastering our thoughts." -John Harricharan