by Deana J.Tavares
[Note from Kathie MM: This post from Deana Tavares fits in perfectly with both our series of personal stories from peace and justice activists–see this–and our series on John Pavlovitz’s message in Hope: A life-affirming, love-defending, butt-kicking, world-saving manifesto. Deana is a great example of someone finding and using her own superpowers to contribute to the forging of a better world.]
There are times in life when silence is hard to come by, and peace seems so far out on the horizon, we must squint our eyes just to catch a glimpse. As a young girl, I squinted my eyes a lot.
Art, poetry, music, and nature taught me that I could find little pieces of peace all around and stitch my own blanket of peace from the swatches that I found. As the blanket grew larger, I realized many others could fit under it with me.
Within the puffy clouds of Crayola crayon worlds, I found peace. Peace was also there when I belted out the lyrics to records spinning on the turntable, as I listened through my over-sized headphones. Some peace also came from beautiful words and images found in photo magazines, then trimmed, displayed, and viewed daily. My mother’s organ and grandmother’s warm kitchen reverberated with peace. Lilies of the valley carried peace-filled beautifully-scented droplets on the wind to many people, who clutched them tightly within tiny hands. Butterflies, ants, and bees carried miniscule granules of peace on their backs and dispersed them where they could easily be found by big bright inquisitive eyes. Words of peace that circled within warm breezes were plucked like leaves from the branches of towering trees.
When living between contradictory walls of chaos and walls of compassion, one gains an interesting perspective. One phrase that has remained with me since I was a very young girl is “treat others how you want to be treated.” This message made more sense to me than anything else in my world at the time. So, this is the path I chose for myself. With my art, I fought for me, so it made sense that I could fight for others as well. Especially if their voices weren’t as loud as mine.
As a result of Spina Bifida and Tethered Cord Syndrome, my body was never very strong and I have always been aware of my limitations, as well as the limitations for many of communication.However, my words, my crayon birds, have flown far and wide over many obstacles, through countless dark tunnels, and perched themselves comfortably within my adult life.
I have learned a great many lessons from the healing properties of nature. It reminds us that we all started from a small seed and then grew into the individuals, the humans that we are today. We all have the same capacity to hate or to love. Being involved with peace and social justice seemed like a very natural way of acknowledging the humanity of others and seeing myself within them regardless of their place of origin.
It’s not pleasant or productive when one feels small, unworthy, or voiceless. There were times in my life when I felt this way. However, we are all meant to be seen, heard, and valued. So if there is any way through my creative practices that I can help someone else to be seen, heard, and valued, then to me, that is true success.
My flight path has helped me to navigate through rough waters and find others who also believe deeply in the concepts of peace. I’m still finding pieces everywhere to stitch into my blanket of peace, and many beautiful individuals have been woven into it as well. I have learned that peace-seeking individuals come in many forms–college professors, poets, artists, peace chaplains, healing arts instructors, storytellers, playwrights, musicians, teachers, community activists, mothers, family, and friends, as well as Chickadees.
There are also many programs and organizations that focus on creating a deeper understanding for one another, which in turn creates more compassion, and hopefully leads to more tolerance within our world. There are a few groups that I have been extremely fortunate to be involved with and that have fueled my work for peace and justice, such as: Oneness And Wellness with Dot Walsh, Wake Up And Smell The Poetry with Cheryl Perreault, the William Joiner Institute for War and Social Consequences with Danielle Legros Georges, School Street Sessions Poetry Advisory Committee with Deborah Malone, Creatives For Social Change with Alison Brill, Women’s Suffrage Celebration Coalition with Fredie Kay, and the musical about women’s rights “We Did It For You” by Thea Iberall. These programs and individuals have all made me feel that my ideas of peace and social justice are attainable,because they are shared views.
We are so much more effective within society when we can find common ground and make an impact upon the lives of others, and shine a light whenever possible. So at this point in my life, new patches are being sewn into that blanket faster than ever before, bringing more people together, all in the name of equality, justice, and peace.