This morning our team was up well before the crack of dawn. It was recommended to go up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse to see the sunrise ...
... this is the easternmost point of Australia, so a 'must do' if you are in Byron Bay. So off we went, but it was a bit of sprint up the hill (on foot) to make it in time ...
It really gave us time to pause for a minute and just appreciate the here and now ...
... the beauty and freshness of the new day and intensity of the sun’s rays has a special kind of feeling. You want to pause for those moments, turn yourself to the dawning sun and embrace the hope and promise of the new day.
Out girls team was scheduled to run the first 20km out of Byron Bay before our meeting at 10am so could not linger at the lighthouse ...
... the morning was fresh so we all happily jumped out to run, enjoying the bright sun but coolness in the air that we all knew would disappear by the afternoon.
The boys teams, though they somehow missed the sunrise, still managed to run some of the distance this morning towards Lismore ...
All too soon our kms for this morning were over ...
... and we were driving to meet the Mayor of Lismore, Councillor Jenny Dowell ...
We met her at Lismore City Hall, which has only just been completed with the opening happening on Wednesday ...
... the mayor first showed us a tree they had planted in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Sister City relationship with Yamato in Japan. This was the first city in Australia to become a Sister City with one in Japan and it was a very significant act of friendship, peace and goodwill. In 1952 a priest from Lismore was working in Japan and met the Mayor of Yamato. A strong friendship formed and the idea of a connection with each other’s cities blossomed. After many years of hard work, Lismore became the first Australian City to become a Sister City with a Japanese city in 1963.
The Mayor was very glad to meet the Peace Runners despite the weekend, delivering a wonderful speech, with deep insights, which touched us profoundly. Sharing with us meaningful stories from her own life, she specially emphasised the need of respect and tolerance for other opinions, other languages, other nationalities, other traditions and all possible others ...
Mayor Jenny felt the visiting of the Peace Run in the lead up to their Peace Celebrations was just perfect. Throughout this most significant week in Lismore there will be a Peace Art Exhibition, Peace Talks, and the anniversary ceremony for which 50 citizens of Yamato will be coming to Lismore to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their connection ...
... the mayor went on to tell us that her father was in World War 2 and her Grandfather in World War 1. She told us that about 15 years ago she had a Japanese exchange student staying with her. Her father had not talked to a Japanese person since the war; so when he was coming to visit her for a few days, she didn't tell him about the Japanese student as she didn't know how he would react. When he was introduced to him you could see that he was taken aback but was polite and cordial to him. But over the course of three days even though they did not speak the same language, they bonded. And when they were having their photo taken before he left, her father said, "I could have been shooting at his grandfather". Jenny then went on to say that each one of us needs to understand different people, different cultures, different regions, different language and everything that is different about all of us – so that we can understand these differences and embrace them.
Jenny had a letter for us to take back to Canberra to give to the ACT Chief Minister ...
... in it she said there was not only a message from the city of Lismore but also an expression of Lismore's peaceful ideals.
We all found this to be a most uplifting meeting.
Then we were off to complete our afternoon running for the day ...
... as we had higher milage today, our girls team all ran individually. This was quite a change from how we have been running over the last week or so.
To get out onto the road with just you and the Torch, gives you those silent moments to remember why you are here and what you are doing ...
... sometimes those times alone on the side of the road with no one around you in the heat of the day, you are given those glimpses of peace and happiness that are all the time within but tend to get hidden under the noise of our lives.
We are all peace makers, peace lovers and peace servers. If we ourselves can bring peace into our own lives then we have contributed something very significant to this world ...
The end of our run today was at a small service station and as we went into it one of the customers waiting for a meal asked us how our run was going. He had been seeing us on the road today. As we got talking about the Peace Run, Anthony said that when you are happy and positive other people want to be around, because they see you and your positive happy outlook on life and want some of it. That is how it can spread ...
Our new friends who have recently joined the Peace Run are a very good acquisition for the team. Good runners, good servers, good smilers they are! Everybody is touched by their positive qualities and energy.
Thus, with renewed enthusiasm we are continuing our way down to the celebrated Australian Capital. From city to city, from town to town, from people to people we collect their best wishes, goodwill and pride – sometimes formalised into the letters which we are given by Mayors – and carry them to the people and the leadership of the city that embodies the Nation's ideals.
Jaival is not only an excellent driver (he's a driver-instructor) but a cheerful runner and an ingenious photographer as well.
Odgiiv is always ready for a run. He is moving with great focus and agility (as all the Mongolians we had so far on the Peace Run) and even the van waiting for him cannot stop him.
During the boys running today, they met some people ...
... who were happy to hold the Peace Torch.
Running 15,000km will inevitably involve getting lost a few(!) times. This is usually due to human error, in all its glorious forms, or the technology. Today it was the turn of technology and our Sat Nav which steadfastly refused to recognise any of the streets or place names we were trying to find to mark the start of our day's running. This will require the teamwork of map-reading, driving, asking the locals and basically staying cool and clear-headed to get back on track again, and is just another example of how the Run is a wonderful example of the necessity of working together to achieve our goals ...
... these same principles apply to everything we do. The Run does not in fact just involve running. The epic route needs to be planned and communicated. The meetings we have along the way need to be arranged, confirmed and communicated to the Team Captain. The runners need to have places to stay, to eat and prepare reports with the day's photos for this website ...
... without the efforts of every single team member, this project would never get off the ground. World Peace is the greatest of projects and we all have our role to play as members of Team Humanity. Go Team!
A big thank you to Glenwood Tourist Park and Motel for hosting some of our team members this evening.
Three girls were also hosted at Rooftops Bed and Breakfast, with our kind hosts offering us a yummy breakfast to start our day.
The remainder of the team were fortunate to stay at the City Centre Apartments in Grafton.
