Connecting Gagas' Camp to Peace One Day 2021

What is Gagas' Camp is the name my daughter-in-law and I created for the time my grandchildren spend with my husband and me at our apartment.  Days with grandparents before school starts while parents are working.  

Why Gagas? When my grandson was a baby, he called his paternal grandparents, the Gagas. I was Gaga and my husband was nice Gaga.  As my grandson's vocabulary expanded, he qualified everything he found strong, and big, "heavy."  My work allowed me to travel for periods of time to help my son and his wife with my grandson in Boston. My husband could not leave his OKC-based work as often as I did and without any influences, I became "Nice Gaga" and my husband became "Heavy Gaga."  My granddaughter did not give us a name of her own that stuck like Gagas.  Now, our grandchildren are 5 and 3 years old.  Our grown-up names are Grandma and Viejo. Viejo is a name my son and my husband influenced my grandson to call my husband.

Why Camp?  My daughter-in-law, whose beloved mom passed away and who was taking care of her dad at an assistant living facility during pandemic times, created a Cousins Camp. I remember the light coming from her heart, I saw in her eyes when she spoke of the time she was going to share with her siblings, an older sister and a younger brother, and her sisters' children at a rental beach house.  The spouses joined them during the weekend as they stayed to work online at my son's house.  It was a memorable time for all, complete with the cutest t-shirts. It was a very special family time where, while my grandchildren and their younger cousins played at the beach, their mom and siblings found some peace rejoicing in the sweet remembrances of the times spent at their beach house with their loving parents as they were growing up. 

When my daughter-in-law told me that my grandchildren were excited to come to Grandma's Camp I felt it needed to include my husband, as he is retired now.  I felt he brought a very special connection to sports, "heavy playing and learning," jokes, loving discipline, and all of the rest that only "VIEJO" can bring.  I, in turn, bring my desire for them to be introduced to my native language, Spanish, during playtime at the playground, arts and crafts activities, swimming, or learning how to play tennis and golf from VIEJO.  My challenge was how I was going to put all of this together in an age-appropriate cohesive way within the few days I had before school started and in between flu shots, appointments, weekends away with parents, and whatever changes their lives bring on a daily basis.

I am in my fourth year of full retirement.  I worked as a Spanish teacher for 20 years and I treasure the Master Teacher Chair provided by Heritage Hall High (HH) School where I served until the end of the school year 2019-2000. I shared my growth as a teacher, a woman, and a mother with my only son.  I left HH a year after he graduated from HH where he was a lifer. He went away to college in Boston.

My following 18 years as an educator were spent at Casady School, where I met my husband when I joined his graduating class the school year of 73-74 as the AFS exchange student from Peru.  At Casady, I facilitated the service-learning graduation requirement program.  The program I started left in my soul's GPS a very special connection to the month of my creative mother's birth, September. The connection that again, my daughter-in-law helped me described as my soul whisper or my possible real purpose in life is when she suggested taking a 15-Day Meditation Challenge: "I am a peace seeker, but I am afraid to take transformative actions because I do not trust my intuition or soul whisper." I am still at a stage of evolution to place in words what my life purpose is but I feel very connected to finding peace/joy/happiness/love/gratefulness by learning about What is Peace for me? and learning how to give and empower others to find Peace/Calm Serenity. During Covid 19 times, there is a higher priority for this type of "soft values." In my personal life, I was laughed at and ridiculed before when I focused on meditation, mindfulness, kindness, and peace.  How the internet is making that change? I am grateful to be making the connections that give me hope despite the political and dividing times in which we live.

How is What is peace? connected to Gaga's Camp? The short answer is Pinwheels for Peace and Peace One Day.  

I have facilitated Casady Peace Week, Casady Pinwheels for Peace in language classes, and Peace One Day, International Day of Peace Observances for over a decade with students of all ages at Casady School. The Pinwheels for Peace project first came to my attention the year my mother came to live at a nursing home in OKC.   As I write this, I am discovering that motivating my peace quest is that my body feels that my dear mother might never have really been at peace with herself.  Also, my grandson gets easily upset and disconnects his loving ways with outbursts of negative, almost destructive energy from time to time.  My sister adopted a little girl from China who had similar outbursts of energy and she had a hard time finding balance in her teens and now early adulthood.

What is a pinwheel and why a pinwheel? In the USA, a pinwheel, I learned, is a symbol of childhood. It is connected to a simple, joyful time in life.  The day I arrived in Massachusetts, I saw a beautiful pinwheel at my grandchildren's home.  The next day, my granddaughter, whom I named Peace Baby because she gave peace to her parents and grandparents when she came home from the NICU before Christmas, many days ahead of doctors' expectations, was having a joyful, loving moment, running around with his brother taking turns making the pinwheel twirl.  Both of my grandchildren were premature babies and seeing them all grown up and playing brought serenity to my heart. 

Pinwheels are easy to make and decorate.  The difficulty is making them whirl with safety.

For me personally, a pinwheel is a windmill, "Un Molinillo de Viento." When I think of windmills, I think of Don Quijote de la Mancha, the dreamer of impossible dreams.  It is hard to believe that the impossible dreams are finding Peace; living without violence or the need of ceasing fire from human to human.  Living with kindness, positive connections, in a collaborative, equitable way.  Living with balance with other Homosapiens, Nature, and Beliefs.  Leaving without fear or anger.

Why a pinwheel for Peace for Gagas' Camp?  Whirl Peace is an art installation. I have had experience making them, seeing the creativity and profound and lighthearted thoughts of students from pre-school to 12th grade. 

My grandson is a very special person.  He has described himself as a creator.  Loves to make at least one creation a day in the kitchen as a chef and a builder with tape, paper, and cardboard. He listens with his eyes and his ears to learn things by heart and with his heart.  He gets frustrated when he does not achieve the perfection he has in his head or when he values his sister's work as better than his.  The time I had felt the closest to him outside of bedtime, is when we both were together by a quiet, clear, beautiful morning by the sea.  I said, "What a serene feeling?" He asked me what serene meant? I really do not remember my answer, but then he connected my response to a song he now requests I sing to him when I put him to bed, "El Mar estaba Sereno." This song has one verse that changes as the vowels are replaced by first A and E, I, O, and U.   Thomas always guides me to what I need to use to empower him to learn Spanish in his own time and way.  This song started his connectivity with the way I learned the vowel sounds in Spanish when I learned how to read and write with the "Coquito" Program.

Through Facebook, I became aware of a new initiative PEACE ONE DAY has to continue to raise awareness of IDP (International Day of Peace 9/21).  They are focusing on Peace Bike Riders.  My grandchildren are still on training wheels so I asked permission from their parents to connect their pinwheels to this new campaign to deliver "Riding Peace Pinwheels" to their neighbors and I wrote this email to campaigns@peaceoneday.org,

"I am a retired teacher who has moved to a new state in the USA to be part of my grandchildren growing up years.  I do not like riding a bike, but my grandchildren need to learn how to ride bikes and how to read and write, therefore, beginning 9/11-9/21 (11 Days of Global Unity), we will deliver pinwheels we will make for neighbors to display if they so choose.  We will leave peace cards explaining our efforts on porches.  It will be a contactless effort.

As a retired teacher, living in Massachusetts, if you connect me to initiatives going on in the area of Chestnut Hill, Brookline/Newton, I will love to volunteer in person, masked, and or virtually.  I have supported Peace One Day Awareness Raising efforts for over a decade.  My former institution, Casady School in Oklahoma City, continues to observe and raises awareness of IDP, every September 21."  Sent from my iPad

I received an immediate reply, 

" Dear Carmen,  Thank you so much for getting in contact, and for sharing with us your fantastic plans for Ride for Peace this year. It is through initiatives like yours, spreading awareness, educating younger generations, and engaging with local communities, that we can all work towards a more peaceful and sustainable world!

Sadly, we are unable to connect you to initiatives, but we are pleased to hear that your school observes 21 September every year. Thank you for all your support.

May we respectfully ask that you share your initiative on any social media that you have, using the hashtags #rideforpeace and #peaceday? You are also welcome to tag or @ us here at Peace One Day.

Alternatively, we'd very much appreciate seeing photographs of your Ride for Peace and your fabulous pinwheels. If you would like to send us photos, you can do so to this address, and with your consent, we may share them online on our website, or social media.  Thank you so much, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.  Best regards,  The Peace One Day Team"

How are Gagas' Camp Pinwheels for Peace connected to Peace One Day and September 21, 2021? When my grandson and I started to discuss making pinwheels, I told him that the challenges were to make them with recycled materials (he is showing environmentalist concerns), weather-resistant to rainy days in Massachusetts, safe for younger children like his sister who is a pre-schooler, and that spin freely and effortlessly.  

Our first pinwheels used what we had available at home.  VIEJO made sure one spins.  That is our progress so far.  

Yesterday, through my Facebook memories, I connected to the question, What is love?  The answers were from children 4-12.  My grandson connected to some immediately, others he had a little trouble understanding.  This gave the idea of going back to old PowerPoints and creating a lesson plan while they are away during the Memorial Weekend. 

Grateful for Gagas' Camp Pinwheel moments 9/3/2021:  I was looking forward to where my grandchildren will take Gagas Camp today.  When my grandson came in, he went directly to the napkin holders he was attracted to before.  I was going to discard them.  He made them into crowns, one for his sister and one for himself.  There was so much joy in his face when he put it on, but he was very clear that the second crown was a collaborative effort between him and me.  His sister's crown was his real creation.  The difference between the two crowns was weight and pipe cleaners to hold it instead of paper. My grandson was looking forward to arts and craft activities and game room games. He said he did not want to swim or play tennis. My granddaughter was looking forward to arts and crafts, game room games, playground time, and swimming.  The only thing we did not do was swimming because mom came to pick them up a bit early as they go away for a couple of days to visit friends tomorrow.

The children came at 10:30 am because my grandson had to go to his new school to learn how to self-administer a rapid Covid test, which in his former pre-school they called "the tickle test."  At this hour of the day, they get their morning snack.  I wanted it to be especially sweet as it was Friday and they are allowed sweet treats and tv on Fridays. I told them because of their personal bravery with flu and Covid test and shots, they were going to have a special sweet treat.  I also said that my husband had earned his sweet treat, perhaps influenced by the kids' definitions of love we had read the day before at Gagas' camp at their house.  My husband had eaten half of the only peach we had left and left the other half for me. It was really delicious.  I loved it and ate it all despite the fact that I could have shared a morsel with him.  I said I had done nothing brave or kind, therefore, I was not going to get the treat.  The treat was a mango popsicle and I only had three popsicles left.  I had eaten two the day before.

My husband was on a roll of disciplinary activity.  We were talking too loud, we were making too much noise.  I was over-guiding the children's creativity.  When I placed him to handle the glue gun, his body language showed displeasure which later on came back in the question, Who in their right mind uses glue guns with this age children? I thanked him for what he had done with us and ask him to go away.  My husband went to the living room and quietly sat there.  I am grateful for what happened afterward.  My grandson said, "I am usually the one in trouble, the one who gets a talk and has to find how to fix it.  Today, Viejo got in trouble."  As we were leaving to go to the playground and playroom, I asked my grandchildren to invite their Viejo to go with us.  My grandson said no, and my granddaughter did not answer.  While we were at the playroom, we needed an extra person to play with.  We all smiled when VIEJO appear just at the right moment.  He was still somber but after a little while, he was taking videos and communicating.  

I am grateful that my granddaughter taught me that she is aware of personal creations but needs help to understand collaboration. She is a loving and collaborative child, but as we were finalizing the first pinwheel my grandson decided to create it to give away to a neighbor who he calls "duck man,"  my granddaughter was helping glue pieces of paper on the pinwheel, but she thought the pinwheel was my grandson's and she did not want to touch it.  With a little bit of coaching, she understood and not only glued a few more pieces but also colored the "Primary and Secondary colors, and texture pinwheel for Duck Man."  We did not go over the concept of peace or what is a pinwheel for peace yet.  We did have examples of lack of collaboration, conflict resolution, and the differences in points of view between my husband and me which disconnects and connects us at the same time. I am grateful for the lessons learned today.

I am documenting Gagas' Camp on a 2021 Peace Pinwheels PP from now on as the children start school orientation today and will start attending school full time.  I told them, Gagas' Camp activities include being with them to play and learn.  It happens more often than they think and they do not have to be at the apartment to experience it.