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Dear Friends of Peace Pilgrim - Placerville
Update - Peace Dome and Archive Dedication
Dear Friends of Peace Pilgrim
The seasons have turned again. Spring blossoms fade into the luxuriant
greens of summer. The scent of lilac hangs in the air and the first
fireflies wink on and off in the quiet stillness of a June evening.
Much has transpired since our last newsletter. Our property in Somerset
has been sold to an appreciative couple who fell in love with the beauty
and peace-fulness of their new home in the Sierra foothills.
March was a month of intense activity with the closing on the property
and two rounds of moving.
Our archives were transported to Copperopolis about 70 miles to the
southeast where Friends of Peace Pilgrim board president Cheryl Canfield
has established the “Peaceful Pathways” center at her home
in the Peace Dome. Cheryl will be hosting our archives and study center.
Cheryl also plans to host occasional Peace Pilgrim retreats. A dedication
ceremony for Peaceful Pathways was held on April 17, 2005. The peace
pole that had marked the entrance to the Somerset house was planted
as part of that event.
Our inventory of books and order processing activities have been temporarily
relocated to Placerville, California, 
while
we continue our search for a permanent location for these activities.
In the capable hands of long time volunteer Gary Guthrie and Placerville
resident Mary Garman, we continue to answer the phone, open the mail,
read your emails and package and ship our books and materials to friends
all over the world. Mary and her husband John generously opened their
home to us and have provided a comfortable office and environment for
our work. An update from Gary and Mary can be found below.
Our search for a permanent long-term home for order processing has produced
several possible locations. In May board members Richard Polese and
Bruce Nichols traveled to Oklahoma City to meet with a very active and
inspired group that would like us to relocate to this centrally located
city. We toured office space that has been offered, attended National
Day of Prayer events, visited the Oklahoma
City National Memorial (site of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building
bombing), and spoke about Peace Pilgrim at several venues including
one in which we shared the stage with environmentalist and planet saver
Julia
Butterfly Hill. We also met many, many wonderful Oklahomans who
made us feel very welcome. We offer special thanks to Sue Tarr who organized
our visit and Lakshmi Ramgopal and her family who hosted us in their
beautiful home.
Lakshmi had also visited the Somerset center just at the time of our
March move and was an invaluable help in that endeavor.
Other offers have come from Massachusetts and Southern California and
there may be one or two more in the works. We hope to be able to announce
a new permanent home for our order processing in an upcoming edition
of this newsletter.
For all those who have sent letters of concern and support for Kathy
Miller we are pleased to report that she continues to make progress
with her cancer treatments. A letter from Kathy can be found on page
three.
John and Ann Rush continue to live in the small blue house on Quaker
City Road in Charlestown, New Hampshire. They are active in their local
Quaker Meeting which takes place in an 1820 meetinghouse about a half-mile
down the gravel road that runs by their home. A couple of times a week
they do some gentle weight lifting with a physical therapist. Karen,
a lovely young woman from the community, helps with meals, and they
have the loving support of daughter Erica and son-in-law Albert who
live next door.
We continue to be reminded of Peace Pilgrim’s wonderful words,
“Live in the present. Do the things you know need to be
done. Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold.”
In Peace,
Cheryl Canfield, Bruce Nichols, Richard Polese,
Jeff Blom, Kathy Miller, and John and Ann Rush
The Friends of Peace Pilgrim Board
An Update from Placerville (top)
by Gary Guthrie and Mary Garman, our Center staff.
The Friends of Peace Pilgrim center moved on March 16, 2005 to a new
and interim location in the home of Mary Garman and John Stokes at 2769
Boardwalk Avenue in Placerville, California. Here we have a small but
efficient office, storage for operating quantities of our materials,
and housing for our full-time volunteer, Gary Guthrie.
In 1969 Mary was a student in the school founded by John and Ann Rush
in Argenta, British Columbia and has been an active volunteer at the
Peace Pilgrim Center since our move to Northern California. Gary Guthrie
relocated to Placerville to continue the important work of distributing
our Peace Pilgrim materials.
At the end of March we had a special visitor. John Francis, known by
many as “Planetwalker,“ visited our new Placerville office.
In the early 1970s, in protest of an oil spill in San Francisco Bay,
John gave up motorized transportation and began walking everywhere.
Soon afterward, he began a 17-year period of silence communicating only
through mime, sign language, and short written notes. During those years
he walked across America, much in the spirit of Peace Pilgrim, as a
silent witness in service to humankind and the environment, obtaining
undergraduate and graduate degrees in the process. He spoke again for
the first time on Earth Day in 1990.
An open house for the interim Peace Pilgrim center was held on April
21, a week after Cheryl Canfield’s dedication of the Peace Dome
and Peace Pilgrim library in Copperopolis. About 25 people attended
the program. Rev. Richard Billings, in whose church Peace Pilgrim gave
her last pubic talk, called and offered a blessing for our new location.
Long-time friends of Peace Pilgrim, Cheyenne Bear and Lukas Allen came
up from Ojai in their van lending their special Middle Eastern touch
to a candlelit meal. Ken and Christine held the starring guest in their
laps – baby Gabriel Friedman who had been born the at the Somerset
house in early January.
Our celebration included songs, readings, and wholesome food. The program
concluded with an announcement from the Friedman family that they would
be moving to Prescott, Arizona, a wooded university town this summer.
Ken has accepted a teaching position at the Waldorf School in Prescott.
After the open house, we returned to the joyful work of answering your
phone calls, letters, and email and filling numerous envelops and boxes
with books, booklets, and other Peace Pilgrim materials bound for our
friends all across America and around the world.
Peace Dome and Peace Pilgrim Archive Dedication
(top)
by Judy Jones
Writer, artist and Great Peace Marcher, Judy Jones attended the
Peace Dome celebration held at Friends of Peace Pilgrim board president
Cheryl Canfied’s “Peaceful Pathways” property in April.
More of Judy’s work can be found on her website: www.ontheroadwithjudy.com
On
Sunday, April 17th, 2005, a celebration and dedication for the newly
relocated Peace Pilgrim archives and library was held at the Peace Dome
in Copperopolis, California. The dome is located at Peaceful Pathways,
the home of Cheryl Canfield, one of the original compilers of the Peace
Pilgrim book. What a treat to meet her after carrying it with me for
the past 12 years!
The celebration was in the spirit Peace Pilgrim would have chosen! Her
life's work brought strangers together in love, peace and harmony as
each of us spoke of what we individually were doing in our lives to
promote peace.
A friend of mine, Laura Nimr, graciously offered me a ride to the event,
and entertained us with her original music in Spanish and English. She
had the whole room dancing and singing!
There was also a wonderful flute player at the gathering and the Peace
Dome must be seen to be appreciated! Both of Cheryl's parents were there
and I immediately understood why her life is dedicated to service.
It was good to reconnect with friends that had been on The Great Peace
March with me, walking across the United States. I knew we truly were
becoming an 'Inter-planetarian Family'.
My spirit soared into a flame!
For information on The Peace Pilgrim Archives and Library and the Peace
Dome please contact:
Cheryl
Canfield
Box 423, Copperopolis, CA 95228
cherylcan@aol.com
| “It is not how much we do, but how much love
we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love
we put in the giving.” – Mother Teresa |
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