Threads of Connection | How Women Weave Peace in a Divided Land | by Karletta Marie | Inspiring Story #197

500 wind spinners hang low from whitewash arches in Old Town, Paphos. Thousands of threads, a myriad of colours - red, and yellow, blue, white, turquoise, pink and green - float in the air. Each chain stitched and weaved by loving hands of Greek and Turkish Cypriot women gathered as one from all over the island.

 A violin plays, accompanied by a piano as people move solemnly beneath the installation. Some smile, their eyes filled with love, many have eyes filled with tears.

A beautiful Cypriot woman, her hair black like the night, eyes glistening - I don’t know if she’s Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot - she brushes against my shoulder as we pass under the arches. She lifts her chin to view the windspinners...

“Which one did you crochet?” I ask.

“I did three.” She points to the pink and green one. “See that one. I did that. And those two. I didn’t know how to crochet before now, but I wanted to participate so a friend of mine showed me how.”

She’s one of many women gathering to raise windspinners to the roof in commemoration of the late Christiana - a strong and compassionate woman who co-founded the organization Peace2Peace.

Peace2Peace brings together Cypriot women from all over the island. United they spread a message of peaceful co-existence through crochet, connection, and collaboration.

For almost fifty years now, the beautiful island of Cyprus has been divided by a “buffer, green zone” separating North from South. It's the only nation in the world to have a capital city separated. Turkish Cypriots split from Greek Cypriots. Thousands of lives lost in conflict. Tens of thousands displaced. A paradise island torn in two. Hearts broken and tears flowing for the loss of homes, land, livelihood, and lives.

I overhear a word from the crowd, “Some gather to make war. We women gather to make peace”.
And it’s true. A sacred spirit of peace moves gently through the arches, across paved stones and into the hearts of all gathered under the windspinners.

In a nation divided by invisible threads of governance, women gather, weaving threads into works of peace and unity. The nation may be divided, but the work of these women show Cypriots are united. Both symbolically and literally, they bring together what was torn apart.

I pray the work of their hands continue blessed. That these women doing this sacred work keep on as their beloved Christiana intended. And that their powerful message ripple out across all nations divided ...

That despite differences, it is possible to come together in love, that we can unite and live in friendship, and peace.

The Peace2Peace organisation brings together Cypriot women from all over Cyprus to connect, crochet and create open air installations.  Their work promotes unity, common culture and peaceful co-existence in a divided land.  Their message:  “Our island is divided but Cypriots are united.”

Connect and find out more about the incredible work they are doing here:
Peace2Peace Open Air Installations Group