The reasons why people make radical shifts in their lives vary. For Mildred Lisette Norman (1908 - 1981), later known as Peace Pilgrim, the change started one night on a walk in moonlit woods when she realized that she didn't care about money anymore. She only wanted a life that mattered, and for her, that translated into a coast-to-coast walk as a pilgrim of peace.
Kathleen Krull, known for her biographies of adventuresome people, tells Peace Pilgrim's story with a clarity and sense of purpose worthy of this brave woman whose goal was to walk 25,000 miles. She tells how Peace Pilgrim's many of years training for her pilgrimage consisted not only of learning survival skills like plant identification but also of embodying the peace she wished to convey: working with troubled kids, reading to elders, volunteering with peace groups. Once she started walking — with barely more than a toothbrush and copies of her message in her pockets — "she would stop and talk anywhere, anytime, with anyone interested in her quest" for a golden age of peace.
Illustrator Annie Bowler (see A Very Big Problem) specializes in communicating the energy that passes between people, especially through their expressive eyes. We can literally see the transmission from this peace emissary to each person she meets or even passes on the street. Throughout the book, colorful feathered shapes flow subtly behind and around her, representing the peace she carries and conveys. Bowler's color palette gives us a foretaste of the beauty with which Peace Pilgrim wanted to blanket the entire world: an apricot and pink sky over receding turquoise hills, for instance, forms the backdrop for Peace Pilgrim's meeting with a young family in a remote country setting adorned with bright yellow sunflowers.
Anyone who has read Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words will know that Peace Pilgrim's story is robustly inspiring. Once she finished her first cross-country pilgrimage, she rested and prepared for another. In this children's version of her story, we watch her body age while retaining a youthful light born of loving people and being fearless. We learn that she made it to all fifty states, kept in touch with countless new friends, averaged 25 miles a day, wore out 29 pairs of sneakers, and much more. Over the course of 28 years, she crisscrossed the country seven times.
Krull concludes:
"Peace Pilgrim thought of walking as a prayer — a prayer for peace. Everywhere she went, she invited people to act in ways that would make the world a more peaceful place. And, step by step, they did."
This book, in turn, invites us to take steps of peace in this same spirit. Designed for readers ages 4 - 8, it can meaningfully inspire spiritual practice for people of all ages, even those so young that they simply want to explore the beautiful pictures. Krull helpfully includes a "More about Peace Pilgrim" section at the end for those of us who want to know all we can about this remarkable woman with a vital quest burning in her soul.
