Peace Week: September 2013

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Peace Week Specials!

Akron Peace Week is excited to host a new program this year - the Peace Week Special! Several downtown and Akron-area restaurants are highlighting a delicious vegan option during the week. We're so happy to help bring awareness of peaceful food options in our city.

The participants in the first Peace Week Special are:
Ms. Julie's Kitchen
Urban Eats
Bricco
House of Hunan
Cilantro
Ohio Brewing Co.

Bricco has prepared a few special specials!
Pizza with marinara, red peppers, asparagus, yellow squash, mushrooms and red onion $12
Wheat penne pasta tossed with artichokes, spinach, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic oil $12
Quinoa with black beans, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, avocadoes, corn, roasted garlic, cumin and chili powder $8 lunch, $12 dinner

Ohio Brewing is offering their amazing vegan pizza!

More may be added soon, and will be updated here.

You can tell which restaurants are participating by the poster in their windows.

Monday, September 23, 2013

New Banyan Tree Address

The Banyan Tree, host of our events on Sunday the 29th, Monday the 20th, and Thursday the 3rd, has moved to a new location in Peninsula.

These events will be hosted at their new location.

Here is that address:
6138 Riverview Road, Suite C & D
Peninsula, OH 44264

Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience. We love the Barbe and the Banyan Tree, and are happy we could still work with them this year.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Peace Ride!

A bicycle ride up the towpath is always a nice time. Lovely wooded scenery draped right along the canal and Cuyahoga River.

Why not ride for Peace?

On Sunday Oct 6th, we are holding the 2nd Annual Peace Ride as a part of Akron Peace Week.

The ride starts at 9am. All participants should meet at the Cascade Lock/ Mustill Store parking lot off of Howard and North St. We will be riding the towpath to Independence, where we will pause for lunch and a short meditation, and then catching a ride back to Akron via the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. We hope to be back in Akron by around 2pm.

This ride is rain or shine. Last year it was cold and wet, but a lot of fun!

Also, any level of rider is welcomed. You don't need to make it all 25 miles. There are several places the train picks people up along the way, or you can turn around at any point. I don't want the distance to turn you away. You know your limits and body better than anyone - ride as far as you'd like. We don't want anyone to hurt themselves.

We are encouraging participants to create their own flag to fly from their bicycle. Be creative - and peaceful.

Please pack a lunch, as the food options on the train and options around the Independence station are very limited. There is water available at various places along the towpath.

There is no cost to ride, though we do always appreciate love donations.

For more info, or to tell us you're coming:
https://www.facebook.com/events/708804352479888/

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Evening For Chuck Updates

We have some wonderful raffle items this year! Lots of great experiences like a cooking class, a house concert, a tour of wineries, a guided tour of the Akron Art Museum, dinner cooked for you, and more!

We also have some amazing music!! Several of my friends are sharing their talents for you this year! Headlining is the Bright Lights, but we also have the Poplars, Colin John, Light of the Loon, and possibly Natasha Addessi!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Summit and Peace Week

It's been a pleasure to have 91.3 WAPS The Summit as a partner over the last several years. This year they are helping to sponsor the Evening for Chuck event on Oct 5th at the GAR Hall in Peninsula. The Summit is a great radio station that really supports the community.
Check out all they're involved in and to listen online (or perhaps donate and become a member):
www.913thsummit.com.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Peace Week Welcomes Vita Coco!

We'd like to welcome Vita Coco as a sponsor to Peace Week this year. They will be donating lots of delicious coconut waters for our events. You'll have a number of options to try this refreshing beverage during the week. We'll even be raffling off a case! I personally like the pineapple flavored ones and the original ones, but they have several flavors for many different tastes.

Akron Restaurants Highlight "Peace Week Specials!"

Then 4th Annual Akron Peace Week is partnering with many downtown restaurants this year to create "Peace Week Specials." These specials are vegan options each location will be highlighting to draw attention to the peaceful foods available to our community in many of our local restaurants.

We will be adding a full list of participating locations soon. I can tell you that Ms Julie's Kitchen, Urban Eats, and House of Hunan are part of the group.

Food is a key ingredient to peace. Both within and without. In our bodies and minds, the food we eat physically creates our bodies. When we put good, healthy, plant-based foods into our bodies, we provide our body with all it needs to keep us healthy and energetic. When we feel good, we tend to find more peace with those around us as well. On the bigger picture, food scarcity and crop failures are putting the world in very precarious situations. Wars have been waged because of lack of food and water, and this will only grow more intense in the future without changing our habits. Along with this, trillions of animals are slaughtered and tortured every year to provide us with "food" that we do not need as a part of our diet and only leads to cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers, diabetes, obesity, deforestation, depletion of water and energy resources, and unnecessary suffering.

Please support the businesses who choose to highlight a Peace Week Special.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Guest Blog - Barbe Beaty of the Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree
“Community for Contemplative Living”

"Meditating is the delicate art of doing nothing: letting go of everything and being who you are." {Sri Sri Ravi Shankar}

For centuries, the banyan tree has been a symbol of sanctuary under which one finds peace of mind and internal harmony.

The Banyan Tree has a fascinating growth pattern: From its roots the trunk shoots up, spreading into long branches, which in turn grow aerial roots that stretch into the ground where new shoots develop, maturing into new trunks again... thus the process continues. This unusual growth pattern enables the Banyan Tree to spread over a huge area, creating many individual “chambers” under its leafy green canopy. A single tree can become a forest by itself, spreading its sheltering vault to a vast 1000 feet in diameter. In its grace, stability and noble simplicity the Banyan Tree truly makes its own statement.

It is not difficult to see the resemblance to the spiritual student or aspirant. As the roots of the Banyan Tree spread, so the knowledge and experience gained by the seeker spread to those around him and his environment. Similarly, as such a robust tree is able to withstand any wind or rain due to the strong roots firmly planted into the ground, so the seeker himself is less easily blown off course by life's crosswinds. The tree becomes a teacher in itself.

Inner work is done best within the leafy green canvas of a supportive community, through activities of daily life that express who we are and what’s important to us… living in true relationship with oneself, others, nature, and spirit.

(Barbe and the Banyan Tree are hosting several of our Peace Week events this year, including the opening celebrations (Sun), family yoga (Sun), the Tool for Peace Panel (Mon), and the Peace Through Problem Solving Nonviolent Communication workshop (Thurs). She was also involved in last year's festivities, partnering with us to bring Swami Shree Yogi Satyam to Akron.)

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Peace Yoga!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Peace Be With You (Theresa Gottl Guest Blog)

Peace Be With You

I’d like to think that I’m not a bad person. In fact, I don’t think most people are “bad” people.

I love animals. I self-identify as vegan. I’ve been to protests and rallies for various political and social issues. I write letters to my political representatives. I go to church (more on this later). I’ve spoken at my local city hall to help get a resolution passed. I’ve taken paper out of the trash cans at work to put it in the recycling bins. I did all of my Christmas shopping last year with local businesses and artists, and I always opt for “organic” and “non-GMO” when I can find it. And in the past 4-5 years, I’ve read a lot of books on philosophy, spirituality, diet, environmentalism--all of which have informed and shaped my own personal journey toward developing a consistent, peaceful life--so I’ve got all the talking points down (again, more on this later).

But a few days ago, while pulling out of a grocery store parking lot, the person in the car behind me decided that I should have pulled out into oncoming traffic, and he or she leaned on the horn. I sighed and rolled my eyes and waited for a gap in the traffic, when the King/Queen of Impatience honked even longer and with even greater snarkiness. At that point, rather than making a right on red, I decided I was going to wait for the light to change, no matter the traffic pattern, just to “teach Mister/Miz Leadfoot a lesson”. After the other driver zoomed past me on the main road, I spent most of the rest of my drive home playing out elaborate revenge scenarios in my head, and felt my blood pressure rising until I suddenly realized I was working myself into a lather over...nothing.

Later that night (I must’ve been in a fighting mood), I was online and started reading comments on a post about the nutritional benefits of eating beans vs. beef. Responses varied from agreement to people who thought they were being funny (“Why are animals made of meat if we’re not supposed to eat them?”), to completely unfounded claims of science (“You need the cholesterol in meat, otherwise your brain can’t function.”) I left a couple responses--neither of which were personal toward any commenters, but they were scathing towards those who held opinions other than my own, and I posted them with the intent of “winning”. What I won, I have no idea.

I justified it by telling myself I was venting, that I didn’t hurt anyone, that no one reads these things anyway.

And all of that is probably true.

But…

I did hurt someone: Myself. I got myself angry and then dwelt on the anger, magnifying it, feeding it until it turned me--even for a short time--into someone I didn’t like or want to be. And that was when I stopped and realized that those two incidents, however insignificant they might’ve been to rest of the world, made me, for a couple moments in that day, a hypocrite.

It isn’t the “big” things that block me in the path to peace. I’m pretty sure most of us aren’t killing or stealing, betraying the trust of our loved ones, or committing great crimes against humanity. But it’s the little things, the gossip at work, the nasty Facebook comment, the momentary road rage--all things most of us encounter everyday--that block me.

In the Catholic Church, there’s a beautiful part of Mass called the “sign of peace” that I hadn’t given much thought to until recent years, despite being a life-long practicing Catholic. During the sign of peace, everyone turns to his or her neighbors and offers a handshake, a hug, or maybe just a smile and a wave, while saying “peace be with you.” It’s meant to be symbolic of wishing peace to everyone in our lives (not just those sitting near us in church)--the family member we’ve argued with during the week, the estranged friend, the gossipy coworker, the guy in traffic who cuts you off, the anonymous internet commenter who you just need to show how wrong he is--everyone. Peace be with you.

Of course, the sneaky part is that by truly wishing peace upon others, you bring peace to yourself.

I’ll probably never get to the point where I won’t say something snarky under my breath to the driver who cuts me off in traffic. I’ll probably always have an argumentative nature. I’m probably always going to want to try to prove that I’m “right”. But I hope that, with practice, I can give my own sign of peace to everyone I encounter, the loved ones and the difficult strangers alike. I hope I can pause and wish, silently, before reacting in any other way, “peace be with you”, so that even a disagreement will be a respectful one. Maybe I’ll start to realize that any reaction beyond that silent prayer is unnecessary, to realize that the difference between “loved ones” and “difficult strangers” is no difference at all. Maybe I’ll start to wish peace to myself before poisoning my own soul with slow drips of anger. Maybe I’ll start to see the “me” in the “you”.

Peace be with you. And you. And you.

(Theresa Gottl is an acclaimed poet in NE Ohio, author of Stretching the Window and a member of the NE Slam Team. She has been a contributor to Peace Week since it started 4 years ago.)