Leap of faith - Not just one, rather a million

Searching for a way to give back, a Seattle leadership consultant took a leap of faith. I was reading the book, "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, said Lucy Garrick, organization and leadership consultant. I had been looking for a way to do something around the concept of peace and raising the status of women. I was floating in the pool in July with no consulting work in sight, so I petitioned the universe for consulting projects in exchange for a life devoted to world peace. Ten minutes later, my phone rang and when I answered, I heard someone say, ‘Hello Lucy, this is Riane Eiser.’ I was stunned speechless.”

An anonymous email to a website focused on raising awareness about violence toward women and children (www.saiv.org) had yielded a phone call from a complete stranger who happened to be a renown peace activist, scholar and best-selling, author. After some conversation, Garrick offered to create a peace workshop based on Eisler's ground-breaking work on domination and partnership systems. Eisler offered to keynote. As she hung up, Eisler commented, “I’m glad I followed my intuition and called you personally.”

Thus was born, Million Ideas for Peace, an organization devoted to inspiring everyday people to do one more thing for peace. Million Ideas is about creating a new definition for social activism that is positive, inclusive and generative. Garrick defines peace in the broadest of terms and is helping people connect their strengths and passions with causes they care most about. Garrick calls it “active peace,” a play on the words, acts of peace.

The rest of the story is history. The consulting work came and on April 12, 2008, the peace workshop, Cultivating the Art of Active Peace, was held at the Seattle Art Museum. Garrick's son, David, a teacher and artist built a mobile especially for the event. “Mobiles make a good metaphor for peace,” said Garrick, “because they depend on balance and flexibility to function.” Participants used the museum's collection to contemplate their own acts of peace and then designed sails for the mobile to commemorate their own ideas for active peace in work of communal art.

Million Ideas for peace continues to develop new work on communication, peace and inspiration. They are also working in partnership with Eisler’s Center for Partnership Studies and the Spiritual Alliance Against Intimate Violence. Learn more and post your ideas for peace at www.millionideas4peace.com