Thimble 82 - Let it Begin with Me

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Gorgeous artwork on this lovely Peace video.
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Thimble 81 - An Unlikely Angel

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An incredible story about an ordinary-extraordinary woman..

Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska)

15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008
Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize

The wings of angels
are often found on the backs of the least likely people.

Eric Honeycutt
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Thimble 80 - 1,000 Paper Cranes

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In Japan the Crane has always been a symbol of good luck, but one little girl changed it into a symbol of Peace for Japan.

This is her story...

Sadako and the Peace Crane

quoted from bbb.co.uk

'... on the 6 August, 1945, at 8.15am, Japanese Standard Time. An atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb exploded 564 metres (1,850 feet) above the ground. Nearly all the buildings within 2.4 km (1.5 miles) were flattened. About 80,000 people died instantly from the blast. Another 70,000 died within a year, from injuries and from the fallout of nuclear radiation in the area surrounding the bomb's detonation.

The deaths did not stop there. Around 200,000 people have died because of this bomb alone. Many died because of illnesses brought about from the high levels of nuclear radiation to which they were exposed from living in and around Hiroshima.

One young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki was born in 1943. She was only two years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Although she was too young to remember the war, every year she took part in the Peace Celebrations in Hiroshima because her grandmother died during the war. As Sadako grew up, she was strong, courageous and athletic. In 1955, she was preparing for a big race when she became dizzy and fell down. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, a cancer caused by radiation fallout, the 'atom bomb disease'. She was only 11 years old.

The illness changed Sadako's life. She was unhappy because she could not go to school, go out running or do the activities she had so enjoyed. However, she knew that some people recover from leukaemia so she never gave up hope.

One day her best friend Chizuko came to visit her and she told Sadako a story to cheer her up. The story was about a bird, a crane which was supposed to live for 1,000 years.

In Japan the crane is known as 'the bird of happiness' and is often referred to as 'Honourable Lord Crane'.

...the crane's reputation for long life and prosperity became a symbol of good health, and origami cranes became a popular gift for those who were ill. The story said that anyone who was ill should make 1,000 paper cranes and the gods would grant them a wish.

Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her wish to get well so that she could run again. Her friend, Chizuko showed her how to make a crane using origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, and Sadako set to work.

All her visitors brought brightly coloured pieces of paper for her to make the cranes and Sadako's brother hung the finished ones from the ceiling of her room in the hospital.

Sadly, Sadako only managed to complete 644 paper cranes before dying on the 25 October, 1955, at the age of 12. The remaining 356 cranes were folded by her school friends so that she could be buried with 1,000 paper cranes.

Sadako had not given up, she continued to make paper cranes until she died. Sadako's friends were inspired by her courage and determination. They collected the letters that she had written and published them in a book called Kokeshi. Young people all over Japan were touched by her story and raised money to build a monument to her and all of the children killed by the atom bomb.

In 1958 the memorial was unveiled. It is a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane and is in the Hiroshima Peace Park, in Hiroshima, Japan.

Robert Atendido, took this picture in April of 2003.
It shows the structures that were built to protect the paper cranes from the elements.

The statue is engraved at the bottom with the wish the children made:

This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world.

Every year on Peace Day people from all over the world fold paper cranes and send them to Sadako's statue in Hiroshima.'

You can find more survivors' stories, and tapes, here at testimony_of_hibakusha.

"I will write 'peace' on your wings and you will fly all over the world"

Sadako Sasaki...

Thimble 79 - Peace Globes 2010

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A Selection of Peace Globe Participants
from Blogblast for Peace 2010



...and it just keeps getting bigger!


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Thimble 78 - A Little Town with a Huge Heart

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In honour of the people of Wootton Bassett, Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed the word 'Royal' to the town - so it will soon be known as 'Royal Wootton Bassett'. This is the first time for over a hundred years that this honour has been bestowed to any town or village in the UK.

What makes the people of Royal Wootton Bassett so special? Watch Rob Mayall's lovely tribute to his hometown to find out...

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Thimble 77 - The Sisters Buried At Lemnos

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My "thimble" for today day is a poem written to honour three Canadian sisters who died in WWI. They represent the often unremembered heroes of war - the nurses and medics.

This poem was written by Vera Mary Brittain, a British writer and feminist who also became a pacifist after her experiences as a V.A.D. nurse. Her fiancé and her only brother were both killed during WWI.


'This item is from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive,
University of Oxford (www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit); © [Copyright notice]'

Vera wrote this poem in 1916, after she saw the graves of three Canadian sisters who had died nursing at the camp hospital at Mudros Bay, Lemnos.

THE SISTERS BURIED AT LEMNOS

O Golden Isle set in the deep blue Ocean,
With purple shadows flitting o'er thy crest,
I kneel to thee in reverent devotion
Of some who on thy bosom lie at rest!

Seldom they enter into song or story;
Poets praise the soldier's might and deeds of War,
But few exalt the Sisters, and the glory
Of women dead beneath a distant star.

No armies threatened in that lonely station,
They fought not fire or steel or ruthless foe,
But heat and hunger, sickness and privation,
And Winter's deathly chill and blinding snow.

Till mortal frailty could endure no longer
Disease's ravages and climate's power,
In body weak, but spirit ever stronger,
Courageously they stayed to meet their hour.

No blazing tribute through the wide world flying,
No rich reward of sacrifice they craved,
The only meed of their victorious dying
Lives in the heart of humble men they saved.

Who when in light the Final Dawn is breaking,
Still faithfull, though the world's regard may cease,
Will honour, splendid in triumphant waking,
The souls of women, lonely here at peace.

O golden Isle with purple shadows falling
Across thy rocky shore and sapphire sea,
I shall not picture these without recalling
The sisters sleeping on the heart of thee!

VERA BRITTAIN

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Thimble 76 - Tuncas'ila

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glitter-graphics.com

Tuncas'ila, I ask you
to hear my voice,
my prayers are always
for the future inheritors,
as we struggle to maintain
peace and healing upon our
sacred Grandmother Earth
on their behalf.

Arvol Looking Horse
keeper of the white buffalo calf pipe
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Thimble 75 - Prayer for Yom Kippur

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"During the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur everyone gets a chance to put things right with other people before asking God's forgiveness. This period is called The Days of Repentence or Days of Awe.

It's a time when Jews can make up for the wrongs of the past year and make a firm commitment to not do the same bad thing or things again."

Prayer for the World

Let the rain come and wash away
the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds
held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory
of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and
fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us
wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that
we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness
of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and
feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun
be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
bring forth flowers
to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts
to reach upward to heaven.

Amen.

Rabbi Harold Kushner
2003
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Thimble 74 - Global Truce 2012

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Peace One Day

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Thimble 73 - The Peace Sign

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The "Peace Sign"has a very interesting story behind it. It was designed by an artist named Gerald Holtom, in 1958. He made it for a march in London, against Nuclear Weapon Research. So what is the symbol? It's two letters of the alphabet, in semaphore:

N

and

D

for
Nuclear Disarmament

Holtom superimposed the two shapes and then tidied them up by putting them in a circle. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) adapted Holtom's designs to make it into a lapel badge.