Today is a special day for us as it marks the 38th Anniversary of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run. We are grateful to be able to celebrate the occasion at the statue of Sri Chinmoy in Edinburgh's Saughton Park.
Saughton Park is a beautifully laid-out garden in the heart of the city. A real oasis of Peace.
We gathered at the Sri Chinmoy Peace Dreamer Statue which offers visitors to the park a chance to pause, hold the torch and make a wish for peace, just as we do with the Peace Torch that we carry with us.
The runners were met by members of The Friends of Saughton Park, a local Community group who lovingly help to look after the park and work to inspire and co-ordinate events with the Park Authority.
Janaka Alan Spence, the former Edinburgh Makar read his heartfelt poem about the park entitled The Ballad of Saughton Park. Following is a short excerpt:
A world made new, now celebrate this re-imagining. Walk up the path, open the gate to glorious flowering.
Friends of the Park, this is your place, this is your time, your day. Skateboarders, Dreamers of Peace, come in to play and pray.
Three members of The Friends of Saughton Park were given the Torch Bearer Award in recognition of their many years of community service, helping to make the park a thriving living environment, for both local residents and visitors alike.
Sarah Bennett, Rona Mcdowall and Shona Nelson with their Torch Bearer Awards. We are grateful to them for the work they do in making the park a place that many local residents use to bring some peace into their daily lives.
We were also delighted to honour Alison Johnstone in recognition of her dedicated service to the Scottish community in myriad ways. She served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament with the Green Party for many years and now serves as Presiding Officer, a role which includes keeping the peace during parliamentary debates, which she does with great dignity and balance.
Alison has been a long-time friend and supporter of the Peace Run. Running has been a huge part of her life, she was a national standard track athlete in her youth. On receiving the award Alison said she really believed that without running she wouldn't be doing what she is now because running teaches us so much about success and failure and what success means, which to her is challenging yourself, growing and developing self-confidence.
We passed the Peace Torch around so that everyone could offer their prayer for Peace.
We then went to the park’s Glasshouse for refreshments before the team set off to run towards Glasgow.
Local Runner Uranta leading the way.
We met some friendly alpaca's on the way!
We finished the day with a delicious Ethiopian meal. Many thanks to our host in Glasgow Adarsha Kelly.
A big thank you to Stena Line for ferrying the Peace Run team van from Belfast to Scotland.
