First IIWP Planting a Tree for Peace Event in Bogota Colombia!

On Sunday, June 9th, IIWP Rep Vania Grimalt and 13 other peacemakers gathered in the home of Karen Zuluaga Jiménez in Bogota to have a Peacemaker Meeting and to plant IIWP’s first tree for peace in Karen’s garden. Here’s their report:

Thanks God for today! It was a beautiful day, not too much sun, not too little – just enough. A nice gentle breeze accompanied us the whole time, and it was like we all were embraced with a glow of joy and sweetness, open and available to this sharing of peace. We arrived at Karen’s home at 1pm, which is outside of Bogota in Chia. We had lunch together outside at the backyard garden, everyone had brought something to share. 🙂 We enjoyed a nice talk, and we found out that Karen and her mother Clarita have been working at the garden earlier (where we were going to plant our tree for peace later this afternoon). There were so many funny stories to share.

Then we gathered in the living room for the Peacemaker Meeting. We were 14 peacemakers ready to share our peace! Some of us were MSIA ministers, others were students of MSIA Discourses, and still others were close family open to experience whatever came present in this meeting. We even had a little one present, Valeria. She is 2 years old, and when we started the Peacemaker Meeting, she didn’t like the TV anymore and hurried up to the living room to be part of the meeting. Adriana, her mother, very lovingly and peacefully allowed her to sit in her lap, and Valeria shared her smiles and sounds until she felt sleep 🙂 It was beautiful.

Karen called us forward into the Light, and we started to share our intention toward peace. We became aware of how many diverse, particular and practical tools that people use to attune with the Peace present. Vania noticed that focusing on qualities of peace can help us experience peace through them. And Karen observed how through our intentions, we were able to choose peace regardless any circumstances. We listened to the Meditation for Peace and did the Peace Prayer Visualization, starting with a seeding.

Being attuned to this high energy, we went outside to the garden and finished the meeting by another kind of seeding – planting a Tree for Peace. Here’s information about the tree we planted: CentroNía Brachycera (Melastomataceae), known as Tuna, Arborea is a species native to the cold forests of Colombia. It is a tree that can reach 7-15 meters tall, and it gives big magenta or violet color flowers!

Planting the tree was so amazing and amusing, some of us used our hands without gardener’s gloves, and some used a gardener tool. We could feel the energy coming out of our hearts and into the ground and almost felt like the tree was happy to be planted by so many humans!! And we were all laughing, joking and talking from our peace inside. When the tree was planted, we grabbed hands in a circle and surrounded the tree. Everyone shared a quality of peace from his or her heart as a gift to the tree to multiply and magnify it as it grows and to spread it into the whole world through its roots, trunk, and leaves with the help of the gentle breeze and the Sound Current. We placed a stone by the tree with a quote “Peace is Present” from IIWP Founder John-Roger.