BlogBlast For Peace 2011 ~ What It Is

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BlogBlast For Peace 2011 ~ What It Is

November 4, 2011
Bloggers from all across the globe
will blog for peace. 
We will speak with one voice.
One subject
One day

Welcome to the 8th launch of BlogBlast For Peace aka Dona Nobis Pacem in the blogosphere.

What is it? A small group of bloggers answered a challenge I tossed one angst-filled October day in 2006.  I wanted to know what would happen if all bloggers everywhere signed their name across a globe and all posted the SAME POST on the SAME DAY. I created a graphic and made the first one.  I asked them to write "Dona nobis pacem" which is Latin for "grant us peace" across the graphics image and post it on their blogs in November.  Fifty-two people responded enthusiastically and soon it began to spread like a beautiful lyric across the internet. 

It was the Internet's first ever online movement of its kind to invite bloggers to post the same message on the same day. From blog to blog it has moved and continues to grow. It is a virtualinscription of hope. We have been amazed to see the power and passion shown each year displayed on pages across the world. We visit each other with our prayers and scribbles, prose and poetry, art and angst, heart and hilarity - and are moved by it every single time. There is something magical about the peace globes. Something I can't explain. But everyone who participates will tell you that very thing.

What we have built since 2006 is a core of distinct and remarkable individuals called "peace bloggers."  They write. They draw. They paint beautiful words and images. They help and encourage each other. They may differ in philosophy and politic, but they find a way to peaceably debate. And then they sign their names to a promise. To a hope. To a dream we all have. To one day live in a world of peace.
Not all of them blog. Many blog peace on Facebook and Twitter. All have earned a special place in my heart.


They continue to amaze me with their inspiration and dedication to the peace globes, which now fly in 53 countries and countless provinces and cities across the world. They are housed in an online gallery here and shown daily throughout the year on thousands of blogs. Every November 4th - which is my grandfather's birthday - we fly them in unity. We launch a newBlogBlast For Peace. We hear new stories. We welcome newbie peace bloggers. We learn about the world around us, how alike we all are, how human. It is a beautiful thing to behold.

This man, my Papa, is the reason I hold tight to the peace globes. Read his story below. I wonder if he knows what an inspiration he's become to so many... long after he left this world. I wonder if he knew that earth wrapped marble would become a symbol of peace and hope.  He was that to me. And now he is that to you.

Papa's Marbles ~ How It All Began