Our 180 Stars

Our 180 Stars. A couple of years ago, my sister and her boyfriend of almost 15 years, decided to get married. They didn’t want a traditional wedding, but, rather, a simple back yard surprise wedding. My sister found some pictures of some beautiful backyard weddings and she pieced together what she wanted. One of the things she found were these fabric weaved stars that were hung on long strands of fishing wire and blew beautifully in the breeze.

We set out to find out where we could buy these stars but didn’t have much luck. I spend time with my good friend Google and just kept trying different key word searches and I ended up finding a tutorial on how to weave the stars with floral ribbon (you can watch the video just – CLICK HERE

It took us awhile to find the right ribbon to use and to perfect our technique, but we were able to weave about 200 stars for my sister’s wedding day.

It was such a fantastic day and the stars were beautiful!!

What do you do with a couple of hundred fabric stars after the big day?

We couldn’t bring ourselves to throw them away since we had put a lot of time and energy into making them all. Each kept a few to hang on our Christmas trees. (Side story: my sister started a little tradition when we got older, where each of us and our parents share unique ornaments with each other so that even though we are miles apart, our Christmas trees have similar ornaments on them.)

We went back and researched the tutorial we had found on how to weave the stars and discovered that it was posted from a love and peace filled community project out of Brunswick Victoria, One Million Stars to End Violence. Their goal in posting the video was to get people from around the world to help them weave a million stars to put on display at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

The stars are symbols of light, courage and solidarity to end all forms of violence, including violence against women, bullying and racism. How awesome is that?!

When you visit their Facebook page you will see groups sending in thousands of stars. We put off sending in our measly 180 thinking we would make more so that we would have more to contribute but life got in the way and before we knew it, the deadline was looming. We decided to send in our 180 and put aside feeling like it wasn’t enough.

A common theme that all of us struggle with, “Feeling that we aren’t enough to make a Difference”

To get to a million stars, they need a million stars. Each and every star is counted so our 180 stars each add to the count just as equally as each star that arrives in a box with thousands.

It isn’t about how many but that we contributed what we had, no matter how many that may be. Our 180 make the count 180 more than it would have been if we didn’t send them.

Everything we do to make this life, this world a better place…no matter how insignificant we think it might be…counts. Each kind word, loving touch, shared smile, piece of trash picked up, drop of water conserved, tree planted, animal/insect saved from extinction, matters.

This group starts their story with this quote:

“Returning hate for hate only multiples hate adding deeper to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Be a light, even if you fear seeming small and insignificant. You can and do make a difference.