#differentroad

I design a lot of peace signs. You might say that its a trademark of mine. This has a lot to do with my mom.

My mom was born into one of the Traveler clans, which meant that she spent most of her days in the Gypsy Grove with others of her tribe.

She was also fiercely independent, though, and would freely associate with people from the various iconvilles around where we lived.

This rebel spirit was frowned upon by some members of her tribe. It was also frowned upon by certain individuals in the iconvilles.

The denizens of the iconvilles thought the Travelers too exotic. They didn’t understand them. Thus, they viewed them as just a touch dangerous.

The Travelers, on the other hand, thought that too much mingling with those outside their clans would lead the less dedicated amongst them astray. Who would want to stay dedicated to the old ways when there were so many new and exciting options to be had?

In a way, both sides were right, but more importantly both sides were wrong.

If we leave our birth paths, it’s not so much a matter of us being mislead as it is a matter of us choosing what truly works for us. And as far as danger goes, well, we’re all a little afraid of the dark, and what we don’t know.

This is why my mother went out of her way to get to know people (and creatures) who were different than her. Of course, what she found was that everyone is basically the same, we have bright sides and dark sides, and what really determines if we’re good in the end is how we balance the shadows and the light that are within all of us.

My mom lived what she believed. She married a mysterious magician from outside her own tribe—a highly questionable act for both sides—yet, without her and my father daring to break with their own birth traditions, neither me nor my sister Poppy would have been born, which brings me back to the peace signs.

To people like my mom and my dad who chose a different path, and to people like my sister and myself who chose to forsake all known paths altogether in a quest to dance amongst the stars, peace signs have come to symbolize the great things that can happen when people of different backgrounds truly get to know one another and embrace the fact that deep down we’re a lot more alike than we’d like to admit.

Peace, after all, isn’t just a lack of war, but of conflict. Peace is harmony. Peace is getting to know and understand others, which, in the end allows us to truly understand ourselves.