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International Day of Peace

It was a special day at Bel Aire today.  We celebrated the opening of our new labyrinth as a place of peace surrounded by our beautiful redwood trees at the back of our campus.  The labyrinth will be a way for students to practice mindfulness and reflection.  A labyrinth may be new to some of you, but they have actually been around for thousands of years.  It is not a puzzle or a maze with dead ends and choices but a pathway that is laid out in a circular pattern to take the walker on a journey to the center.  As you walk along the path, it is a time to reflect, find calm when you're in conflict, and appreciate the joys of life.

The labyrinth was a perfect setting for our celebration of peace.  We talked about the 50th anniversary of our International Baccalaureate Organization.  The IB began 50 years ago in the aftermath of a war torn Europe from the International School of Geneva.  That insightful group of educators had a vision that children from all over the world could learn and grow together with the purpose of creating a more peaceful world.   This is still our mission and it's needed in our world more than ever.

I was looking for inspiration for our gathering today so last night I watched the recent documentary film about Mr. Rodgers called Won't You Be My Neighbor? (which I highly recommend!)  I found an idea to use with the students today.  I asked all of us to silently think for one minute about someone in our life that loves us - a family member, friend, teacher, etc.  and after we enveloped ourselves in feelings of love and peace, we sent that feeling out to the world.  Each student placed a flower along the edge of the new labyrinth and sent our good thoughts out to the world with the commitment to work for peace

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I want to thank all those that helped with this project and event - Mrs. Abeyta, Mrs. Imbach, Miki Hsu Leavey, who managed the labyrinth project, Larry Greenwood, landscape designer for creating this beautiful piece, and especially to Dr. Mary Cooke for her generous donation to make this possible.

Please come and use the labyrinth when you need a little calm and peace in your life.

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