A Tale of Two Star Sisters and Pathways To Peace

By & Joanie Ciardelli Avon Mattison

A deep friendship/sisterhood spawned the not-for-profit organization Pathways To Peace in the

early eighties. The story is one of our long-term commitment to creating peace in our own lives and in our

communities, organizations, and the wider world. Over the four decades of Pathways' existence

our work has spanned continents an

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pathways To Peace
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578359809

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A Tale of Two Star Sisters and Pathways To Peace

by Joanie Ciardelli and Avon Mattison

Acknowledgments

This small book is designed to chronicle a very special 40+ year relationship and the important Work that emerged from it. That Work continues to expand and touch generations of Peacebuilders.

My biggest thanks go to Avon for her mentoring for all these years, and all the work she put into adding and editing and making it our creation. Thanks also to the Pathways To Peace Archives Team for their encouragement and support – and for developing and embracing the larger Archives vision: Tezikiah Gabriel, Erica Schneekloth, Tami Briggs, David Wick and Marilyn King. And to Val Sherer, Becky Suzik, Susan Koide, and Prembandhu Citroen for their assistance with technical issues; MS Word is not easy!!

Thanks also to Irene Kai for the beautiful art piece on the back cover, and to H. Lee Shapiro for painting the Peace begins with me dove for Pathways To Peace years ago, now on the front cover. Finally, thanks to Masankho Banda for gathering historic photos and making them available online, and to the thousands who have participated in manifesting the Work of Pathways To Peace.

Joanie Ciardelli

Co-founder, Pathways To Peace

A Tale of Two Star Sisters... and Pathways To Peace

by

Joanie Ciardelli and Avon Mattison – 2021

With contributions from many participants in the Work of Pathways To Peace over the 40 years of our existence

To my Co-creator, my Muse, my Dear, dear Star Sister….

When I started this memoir, some part of me knew it was time to document my powerful 40-year relationship with Avon Mattison and Pathways To Peace. I suspected that Avon might be going into the beyond in a much shorter time than any of us would have wanted. I need to say that, very sadly, that happened, on October 13, 2021 at 11:08 p.m. I am still stunned and deeply saddened, and feel as if a part of me is gone — because we were deep, soul, Star Sisters on this human path.

Avon was, in a sense, my muse… my mentor and sister on my path to Peace. I had newly left the corporate world, and she introduced me to a whole new world, a place of Peace and Peacebuilding that has become my Work life, my extended family, my home of Peace. My loss is small compared to the loss for our planet, our community, our world, now that Avon has joined the angelic realm. And yet I know she is still very present, guiding me and many, many others — and will be for a long, long time. She has joined a cadre of brilliant Beings who guide from on high, having finished their earthly assignments. She will always be in our hearts, ever Present as a mentor for Peace, now free from the physical pain that often impeded her ability to enjoy life.

Much has already been spoken and written to honor dear Avon, so I will just bring here the piece that her Pathways To Peace family published to let our extended family know about this… and I close with the most significant quote I learned from Avon, the founding mission that is still at the center of the Work of Pathways To Peace:

Acting in concert, we do make a difference in the quality of our lives, our institutions, our environment, and our planetary future. Through cooperation we manifest the essential Spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.

With deepest respect and love,

Your Star Sister Joanie Ciardelli

Avon Mattison: Celebrating her Life, Well Lived

Friends and colleagues around the world are mourning the loss of a brilliant and dedicated Peace leader, Avon Mattison. Avon passed on October 13, 2021, and her legacy lives on in all of us, as we continue to pursue Peace in our lives and on our planet. We know Avon is sending her love, wisdom, and support as she experiences the infinite Peace that is beyond our earthly imaginings yet remembered in our hearts.

Avon would want you to know that you are a pathway to peace, regardless of your chosen work. You can bring Peace to our world through living Peace in your life and in your relationships.

For five decades and up until the end of her life, Avon worked tirelessly for Peace. She kept a busy schedule of presenting, consulting, and mentoring. She will be remembered for her love, humility, wisdom, and selfless acts of compassion, and continually lifting-up the beauty, strengths, and talents of others. We will miss her bright light, her unconditional love, her passion, and her unwavering spirit. Through her work for Peace, Avon touched the lives of millions around the world. Avon is the recipient of at least four Lifetime Achievement Awards.

UN Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury states, On 13 October, humanity lost a great soul dedicated to promoting the cause of Peace to all corners of our planet. We will miss Avon and her valiant spirit, inspiring us for so many years in so many ways. May her noble soul rest in eternal Peace!

Avon was Co-Founder and President of Pathways To Peace (PTP), an international Peacebuilding, educational, and consulting organization. PTP has Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is an official Peace Messenger Organization of the United Nations.

Avon co-led efforts to inaugurate the UN International Day of Peace (Peace Day) as established by a unanimous United Nations resolution in 1981. Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all of humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace. Avon inspired civil society to embrace Peace Day so it has grown from small events of a few hundred people in the early eighties into a global movement that reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide, and continues to grow.

Through Pathways To Peace, Avon co-created the Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) in 1983/84 in colleagueship with former UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Muller at a time the term peacebuilding was generally unknown. This local/global Peacebuilding Initiative unites the strengths of over 4,000 international peacebuilders and organizations and focuses co-operative Peacebuilding along diverse pathways/sectors.

Avon worked with innovative leaders, groups and organizations on the frontline, building a diverse and regenerative Culture of Peace inter-generationally and multi-culturally for the Common Good and future generations.

Avon has served as special advisor to United Nations Conferences, Declarations and Programmes, and also to renowned international leaders and emerging youth leaders. She served on the Advisory Councils/Boards of several international organizations and has been quoted in numerous publications worldwide.

Gifts can be given to the Pathways To Peace Avon Memorial Fund, by clicking here:

https://www.networkforgood.org/donation/MakeDonation.aspx?ORGID2=680015625

You may also wish to donate to the Avon Mattison Scholarship Fund to send youth to the United Nations.

Checks can be sent to:

Pathways To Peace Business Office

122 Demont Avenue E, #173

St. Paul, MN 55117

PTP is a 501(c)(3) organization, and your gifts are eligible for tax deduction.

Avon at the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21, 2012, near the UN Peace Bell.

Join others from around our world in a pause for Peace every day at noon.

Let us make Peace Day every day

A Tale of Two Star Sisters... and Pathways To Peace

Introduction

A deep friendship/sisterhood spawned the not-for-profit organization Pathways To Peace in the early eighties. The story is one of deep commitment to creating peace in our own lives and in our communities, organizations, and the wider world. Over the four decades of Pathways’ existence our work has spanned continents and many types of Peacebuilding. It has touched thousands of people around the planet in ways that build more peaceful lives and co-creative service. And our work in connecting people and organizations and in expanding the International Day of Peace (IDP) has left an ongoing legacy we are most happy with. This book is a compendium of many of the steps we followed and hearts we have touched (and have touched us!) along the way, and some of the magic that has accompanied our travels.

The Underpinnings

I met Avon Mattison in about 1977 when we were both on the Board of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). I was working in Marketing Research at Del Monte Corporation, and she was consulting under the name of Creative/Integrative Decision-Making. I became President of the Association, and she continued as a Board member. We would see each other at the monthly Board meetings in downtown San Francisco and began to become friends. One notable occasion of the AMA was a luncheon where Gloria Steinem spoke — when she was just beginning to become famous. Another was