Somehow we (my husband Fouad and myself) never dreamt the mural project would get so much attention. The reason for creating it remains as it was meant to be: an activity that belongs to the children of the world, one that we originated and now coordinate, and one that surprises me for the magnitude of what is spreading and for the symbol it now represents to children everywhere.

We can say that there is no feeling that can compare to looking at each looming and beautiful individual mural. Watching a twelve foot by five foot piece of blank piece canvas transform into a masterpiece, is a delight that tingles my heartstrings and fills me with indescribable joy. It is truly pleasurable to look at the children's faces before they start painting, and when they stand back and look at the final product.

With each brush stroke, the masterpiece grows like a spring flower in an over night rainstorm. With each different mural, and each we get to personally witness being created, we feel them become a part of us. We are joyous that this positive energy and often times the children's sad and lonely feelings transfers onto canvas and can be absorbed in my soul. Sometimes I wish we could absorb the pain and hurt as much as we do the happiness and enthusiasm. We feel helpless when we see the portrayal of war and violence, but we know that putting it on canvas will help them heal and eventually let go.

Fouad and I benefit the most. It's a life's reward in a way, to be able to carry that energy, those feelings, and those imaginations with me. We often have flashbacks of the look on the children's faces and that's why we I talk about it a lot. Those beautiful children's faces! And Fouad captures that through his eyes on film.

When we receive a mural by mail or otherwise, it's also a real marvel. As we tear open a box or rip off a plastic cover, it's like Christmas all over again. With each opening, we feel the children's spirit jump off that canvas straight into my heart. We can feel their laughter and teasing of one another, and feel the reflective ness of those shy and quiet ones. We can see them too, standing, practically leaning close to the canvas, putting themselves hesitantly onto a corner or piece they claim as their own painting space.

And so, the Visual Journey continues, and we feel the spontaneity and pure spirits of these young people.

We can smell the jacaranda trees and imagine the giraffe loping through a Kenyan dusk on the Masai Mara, when we look at the colors and figures the children and Tobias Mumbi created for millions of children to eventually see. And we can hear the fun and laughter of the youngsters from St. Mary's School in Nairobi as they stood back admiring their beautiful work.

We can see Yusheng Zhao's longing for her beloved China as she coaches the children with another wonderful Peruvian Artist Coach, Carmen Rocios Pena de Klein, as the children paint the lively and colorful fish-vivid and alive…like the dancing colors of Peru and glistening fish of China.

We feel Goran's despair and the children of Kosovo and Bosnia's pain and nightmares when we see the paintings of tanks and grenades, of empty lands, destroyed buildings, and kerchiefed women and children fleeing along country roads.

And from the Millennium International Children's Conference on the environment, both Fouad and I feel the connections to the children who care, the hundreds that came to paint topics like "Living in Cities, Water is Life, and Sharing the Planet". Oh, the connections to the Malaysians, the Palestinians, the Israelis, the children from Ghana and Azerbaijan! We can see the fifty-eight Korean children amassed on the floor designing together a national mural-a magnificent mural completed in just 3 hours!

When we look at these murals, each of them, we see something new each time, and savor the joy of children being together unaffected by the barriers the world so readily constructs around them. These are the moments that we seize, Fouad and me. There is no photo, no exhibition, and no notoriety than can take those moments from us-selfish, as it seems.

By growing up in a world of bigotry and racism, sexism, and all the other "isms" that exist, this mural project works like an electric eraser. They wash away the years of tears, the injured heart, the clipped wings, the prisons and ropes that always get in the way of letting us care, really care, about each other.

Working on the canvas allows each child a little bit of time to throw away or forget the nuances that parents and adults engrain in their children, for it is they who tend to teach them how to draw lines in the sand, color in the lines, and separate themselves by color. And each child affected by war and severe spiritual loss, or those of different colors, or religion, or physical and mental ailments get to give of each other and reach out to document what they really think and feel inside. It is their view of the world, their flicker of brightness that reflects in their eyes when they explore and communicate among themselves. It is they, these children who see how different they are, yet how much alike they be. When those differences unite them, it is the time and place on the canvas that these children, even for a short duration are the real peacemakers of today and our hope for tomorrow.

We are blessed to be able to coordinate a project that was and remains a joint effort between my husband and me. It is our love; our devotion and our common grounding that makes us believe so much in the children of this earth. Infinity becomes understandable when we work with these children. And through his eyes, he captures their souls on film, making my memories more intense and lasting.

For us, the joys continue and with a growing sense of emotional wealth, I look forward to the next twelve or twenty four foot stretch of canvas and the brushes, the paint, the tarps, the children. Yes, the children!

UPDATE 2004!

Mural participants number in the thousands now...and consist of people of all ages and from all walks of life. WE thank the many all volunteer teams of supporters of this project who have helped it grow. Living proof of the strength and impact of our project success is that it survives and grows without large amounts of corporate sponsorship or funding. The murals grow because YOU have found ways to find the materials, venues and painters to make this magic happen. In the beginning we invested everything we could to make the Art Miles work and when our own private resources became scarce, so many of you found ways to keep it going. This project is not our project, but a world project. We are so pleased that we have nurtured it, with each of you since 1997. For all YOU parents, teachers, organizations, leaders, students, business people, individuals, caregivers, and loving citizens, thank you, thank you, thank you! We believe what is happening is fulfilling our objective of creating global harmony through art.

We have been so privileged to have witnessed how mural painting truly encourages a dialogue that breaks all barriers and allows us to discover more of our commonalities than our differences. Fouad and I sincerely THANK YOU and extend our wishes that PEACE and LOVE WILL PREVAIL ON EARTH!.