The Project began as a peace awareness vehicle around Valentine's day to publicly celebrate the many faces and greater potential of love next to the traditional Valentine expression. Hundreds of moving and heart-felt poems were received and February actions took place in Australia, Wales, Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Personal love and peace poems tied as scrolls or wrapped around flowers were given away in public places. (For a list of partial participants see Thanks). Dozens of schools and community programs participated and poems were received from Yoko Ono, Marshall Rosenberg, David Whyte and Allison Crowe.
The Project aims to continue and evolve as an all year community social business- building relationships to transform the fact that many commercial symbols and gifts of love actually come out of conflict. As Abigail Lewis, editor of the Whole Life Times in Southern California phrased it: [VPP Founder] Hewson’s ultimate goal is simple: "to give us an opportunity to reflect on love in deeper ways and explore how we can connect the work of peace to expressions of love, whether that be to a partner or to the work of love in the world."
We work on new symbols of international flowers; generate opportunities for post-conflict agriculture; illuminate the communities behind traded items of love, build new flower breeds for peace organisations and work on the artistry of peace - the creative voice in all of us. The VPP will grow from its community roots to begin to promote, market and design social products - beginning with flowers - to connect and support the work of peacebuilding inside its many definitions. And continue community action and education around the Day of Love - Valentine's day in February - and the International Peace Day in September.
We can generate flowers and agriculture for peace and re-define what business can accomplish.
We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. Martin Luther King
Poetry is an act of peace. On our earth, before writing was invented before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that poetry is like bread; it should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity. Pablo Neruda
The key is to never stop looking. Courtney (From VPP poem Love - Los Angeles student)
