Rethinking Peace: A Call for Lived Values

What if peace wasn’t the starting point?

What if peace wasn’t the starting point, but the ultimate level we work toward — like the final stage in a game, a complex and evolving challenge rather than a static achievement?

Today, we face a world shaped by climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing polarization. In this context, traditional definitions of peace — as the absence of war or conflict — feel increasingly insufficient.

We need a new kind of peace: one that is lived, practiced, and nurtured every day. A peace that is not just made between people, but also with the planet.

For over two decades, working with the ENO network, I've been part of a global effort to connect schools through tree planting, campaigns, and cultural exchange. But as the scale of global challenges intensified — especially after the war in Ukraine — a pressing question emerged: how can we make peace more visible, grounded, and actively shared in our daily lives?

Drawing on these experiences and the urgent need for a new approach, I developed Peace Circle® — a model that responds to today’s crises with a holistic, values-based, and community-driven vision.

Peace Circle® brings this redefined vision to life. It reframes peace as a dynamic process that blends empathy, knowledge, and action — inviting learners and communities to co-create spaces of belonging, reflection, and sustainable hope.

Learning That Begins with Values

In many education systems, values are treated as side notes — a few lessons tucked between academic benchmarks. But what if values were the foundation, not the footnote?

Peace Circle® is built on a simple yet powerful framework:

💛 Heart – Hope, love, and justice 💡 Head – Knowledge, science, and wisdom 🙌 Hands – Action, balance, and diversity

This ABC model transforms learning into a holistic and balanced process, integrating thinking (Head), feeling (Heart), and doing (Hands). It invites learners to connect knowledge with empathy, and empathy with meaningful action — all while seeking balance between these dimensions.

It encourages students not only to ask “What do I know?” but also “What do I care about?” and “What can I do?” — emphasizing the harmony between understanding, values, and agency.

In times of uncertainty, values offer a compass. They help us navigate complexity and build relationships — not only with each other, but also with the natural world, aligning human needs with the wellbeing of the Earth.

Peace with Nature: A Reframed Understanding

In today’s world, peace can no longer be defined solely by the absence of conflict between people. The accelerating climate crisis and environmental breakdown demand a broader and deeper perspective — one that recognizes our interdependence with the natural world.

Peace Circle® embraces this expanded understanding. Inspired by Indigenous wisdom and ecological thinking, it redefines peace as a harmonious relationship between people and nature — not only peace for nature, but peace with nature.

This shift in thinking sees nature not as a passive resource, but as a living partner with intrinsic value. It invites us to ask: How can we live in balance? How do we restore what has been broken? How do we listen to the Earth’s voice, not just our own?

Through symbolic tree planting, outdoor learning, and shared care for green spaces, Peace Circle® encourages empathy for nature and a sense of mutual responsibility.It transforms the idea of peace into something lived, rooted, and regenerative.

In this way, peace becomes not just a goal, but a daily practice — grounded in relationship, reciprocity, and care.