PeaceTags: Tag-lines for peace!!!

Don’t you just love tag-lines? Conjured up by marketing gurus, these short, catchy, quips stick in your brain and remind you of the products, movies or companies they promote. Sometimes in spite of your efforts to forget them!

Oh the power vested in so few words! "Just Do It" (Nike), "They’re G-R-R-R-eat!" (Kellogg’s frosted flakes) "It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature" ( Chiffon Margarine), the list goes on and on.

Some of these slogans remain part of the lexicon long after their advertising shelf life. One still hears, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” (Alka Seltzer), “Don’t leave home without it” (Allstate) “When you care enough to send the very best” (Hallmark) even though these tag-lines haven’t been part of marketing campaigns for years. Brilliance tends to last…..

That’s part of what inspired us at PeaceTags--the simple power of words!!! And the fact that brilliance lasts! We recognized that some of the world’s greatest peace advocates had essentially created slogans or tag-lines about peace! These great sages gave us an easy way to focus upon peace, by remembering their tag-lines, their PeaceTags! And with no help from Madison Avenue! So we have placed their phrases on pendants to help reflect them into the world. Voila! PeaceTags!

What’s your slogan about peace? What does peace mean to you? What would be YOUR PeaceTag? …..

Peace Starts with Hearts!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today is all about celebrating love! One of our favorite PeaceTags' sages, Mother Teresa, shared lots of words of wisdom. Here is one of our favorite of her quotes:

“All Works of Love are Works of Peace.”

Pretty cool, huh? Any time we think loving thoughts or do loving deeds, we create more peace in the world. It all starts with individual hearts….

And that is today’s gift of peace from your friends at PeaceTags. Now go out and make it a Peace-FULL day!

To: Paraskavedekatriaphobiacs RE: A Gift of Peace!

Today is Friday the 13th. And we’ve got another one next month, the first time we’ve been hit back to back since 1998. And the 2009 calendar is darkened by yet another one in November.

Worried? Blue?

Don’t go there, PeaceTags Peeps, we have advice from Donald Dossey, an expert on stress, superstitions and phobias.

“If people are fearful of Friday the 13th, I tell them to chill out, don’t worry about it, it’s going to go away,” Dossey says. “It’s only a problem if their fears get in the way of their jobs or love.”

Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., estimates roughly 20 million Americans fall into that second category. They are so spooked by the date on the calendar they can’t go to work. Some don’t even get out of bed, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in business not done.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

Here are two suggestions from the expert, Dossey.

He advises those who walk around with visions of disasters on Friday the 13th to shrink those mental pictures from bigger-than-life to thumbnail size. People don’t necessarily get rid of the frightening images, he says, but they can make the images bearable.

Dossey’s second strategy has to do with what he calls keying in positive feelings. (A practice we PeaceTags Peeps heartily recommend!!!!!)

“Don’t go back and figure out how Mom toilet-trained you,” Dossey says. “Instead, get yourself in a calm, relaxed, alert state, then squeeze your wrist or wiggle your big toe.” (Or may we suggest jingle your PeaceTag?)

Practice associating the calm state and the squeeze or wiggle (or jingle) long enough, and you can use those triggers to banish the unreasonable fears in a matter of seconds.

At PeaceTags, we specialize in gifts of peace. May this information bring peace to all our Paraskavedekatriaphobiac friends……

The PeaceTags Story

"Help! We NEED peace!” I remember shouting to no one in particular as I read the newspaper one day in early 2007. The stories of horrific war injuries, problems at VA hospitals, school shootings, Darfur-unfortunately the list went on, troubled me deeply. I wanted to do something--- anything to help. But what????

As I pondered that question, and thought about what could help us, I kept thinking of all the artists, spiritual leaders and sages who have been peace advocates. Throughout time many wise people have pointed us toward peace through words. Simple words! Where were their voices in these complex and challenging times?

A piece of jewelry seemed the perfect, eye catching way to reflect their words! And I hoped these "mini-billboards" would become a conversation piece encouraging people to think about, talk about and work for peace.

In addition, I wanted this piece of jewelry to keep people mindful of the wounds of war. Many young people are coming home with horrific injuries. Multiple amputations, traumatic brain injuries, burns, and PTSD are all grim realities of modern warfare. We cannot go about our daily lives and forget about the wounds of war. The wounds are physical, emotional and spiritual. And they are deep. These wounds affect us all.

And so, the dog-tag shape, traditionally used to identify fallen soldiers, seemed the perfect, if ironic, choice to reflect the words of peace advocates.

PeaceTags were born!

A small team of devoted volunteers came together, worked their tails off and developed the initial website and assorted necessities like a logo. (Volunteering can be very rewarding AND exhausting. Maude, Andy, Steve, Patti, Angela, Shelly….your generosity will never be forgotten.)

PeaceTags donates 100% net proceeds to innovative groups helping wounded veterans, their families, our communities and our world. They are gifts that give back.

We launched our website on September 11, 2007 and by December of 2008, have donated over $50,000 to causes helping to heal veterans and spread peace! Currently our non-profit partners include the Fisher House Foundation (http://www.fisherhousevaps.org/) and Voices: the Education Project, (http://www.voicesinwartime.org/).

My dream for PeaceTags is that they continue to reach more and more people with their beautiful words. I hope they become emblematic of caring about the wounds of war and about creating peace in our hearts, in our homes and in our world! They make a WONDERFUL Valentine’s Day gift! (For more info, visit www.peacetags.com).

What does Peace mean to you?

Have you ever really thought this question through? The obvious answer is "no war". But peace is really much more than that. It's about freedom. Freedom from hate and violence and indifference. Think about some of the times in your life when you have had a lack of peace. For most of us, peace is more about a state of mind than weaponry. Peace begins in hearts. And peace is ALWAYS beautiful!