How do we make peace? Sometimes making peace means not doing violent things; sometimes it means actively resisting violence; sometimes it means creating a life that prevents violence from happening in the first place; sometimes it means all three of these.

David Kidd decided to make peace proactive—as a response to environmental disaster. In Growing America, he recounts how when he learned about global warming in the years of the administration of G. H. W. Bush he decided to organize his local community to plant trees. And that's what he did. Twelve million of them. But Growing America is much more than about planting trees. It's also about David's commitment to peaceful resolution of conflict, his vegetarianism and his meditative practices, and his vision for a vibrant civil society, fully engaged in striving toward a more perfect union both at home and throughout the world.

In Aftershock, pattrice jones makes peace by advising people on how to resist violence—while ensuring that they themselves retain some degree of peace of mind in the face of shocking violence. In Making Their Own Peace, Ann Madsen reflects on Muslim, Christian, and Jewish women in Jerusalem who have struggled to live peaceful lives in a spirit of tolerance and interreligious dialogue in that war-torn city.

Judy Carman expresses her peace through a meditation on the meaning of ahimsa, or non-violence, in Peace to All Beings; while Kate Lawrence provides in The Practical Peacemaker insights and tips on how to be a peacemaker in your everyday life.

Finally, of course, Lantern publishes a woman who received an award for peace—and a pretty big one at that: Wangari Maathai, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. She made peace her mission through doing what David Kidd does: plant trees. She also fought to stop the systemic violence to communities and ecosystems from governmental malfeasance and greed.

For more on the International Day of Peace, click here.