🍃Standing at the Entrance of the “Era of the Heart” 🍃(Summary Version)
Progress on the “Between Forest and Us” Project,
Co-creating a new path of peace from within 🕊
🌿Between Forest and Us — A New Co-Creation Toward Peace🌿(Summary Version)
Translation of the Original Text will be available later
Between Forest and Us is a project to build a world where the forest and humankind begin to resonate again and co-create in harmony toward a sustainable future with true peace from our inner hearts.
It began in the autumn of last year with a simple yet profound question:
What would it mean to truly listen to the voices of the forest—and to walk forward together with them?
As we turned our awareness toward the depths of the forest, we re-encountered what we call forest spirits—not as mythical beings, but as the living intelligences and functions of the natural world.
They were not unfamiliar presences, but something deeply remembered, as if reconnecting with a wisdom humanity has long carried and long forgotten.
We reconnected with these beings and began to resonate and explore the possibilities of co-creation.
It became clear to us that rebuilding peace in a new way is the utmost urgent work needed for this co-creation. Because the suffering of humanity means the suffering of the Earth itself. One cannot be healed without healing the other.
Through our resonance and dialogue, we came to a shared conclusion:
Peace cannot be created solely through systems, rules, or deterrence.
War and environmental destruction arise from the same root—the unhealed human heart.
True peace begins within.
It emerges where fear does not need to become anger, and pain does not need to be transformed into violence.
Our work focuses on creating what we call “safe margins”—inner spaces of safety within individuals and communities where people can return before fear hardens into hostility. These are places where human dignity is affirmed as it is, and where trust can quietly take root.
Nature plays a central role in this process.
Where human relationships often reach their limits, nature offers unconditional presence. It touches the roots of pain without judgment and restores us to our original state of connection. Without reconnecting humanity and the natural world, we believe deep and lasting healing is not possible.
Our approach begins at the grassroots level—supporting inner healing, community dialogue, and nonviolent peace practices—while also carrying the outcomes of this work into broader social systems.
Building upon the founding legacy of the world UNESCO and Japan’s citizen-led UNESCO movement, we seek to present new, lived models of peace to people, civic organizations, public institutions, and eventually the policy arenas.
“Since wars begin in the minds of men,
it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
— Preamble to the Constitution of UNESCO
At a time when both the Earth and human society face urgent challenges, this project stands as a quiet yet determined response.
The forest reminds us: it is not too late.
There is still something we can do.
We walk this path with hope—for peace rooted in the heart,
and for a future we can pass on, gently and responsibly,
to the generations yet to come.
📒Notes for International Readers🍃
In this project, terms such as “forest spirits” do not refer to mythical or fantasy beings.
We point instead to the living intelligences, relationships, and functions of the natural world, as understood within animistic and ecological traditions.
In Japan, forests have long been places of coexistence—
interwoven with daily life, memory, spirituality, and care for the land—
rather than spaces separate from human presence.
The word “heart” in this text refers not only to emotion, but to a deeper human capacity for awareness, healing, ethics, and connection with others and with the Earth.
Our use of “peace” emphasizes nonviolence at its roots: the creation of inner and social conditions in which fear does not need to transform into aggression.
By “Earth family,” we mean all those—across cultures and borders—who feel a shared responsibility for the living Earth and for the future of coming generations.
🍃How You Can Participate or Support This Project🍃
If you feel called to support this co-creative vision in a tangible way, we would be grateful to hear from you. Please send us an email from here.
If our activities resonate with your heart, welcoming a Forest Spirit (available for international shipping) or a work by L’oiseau Lune through our online gallery/works would also be a meaningful support to this grassroots initiative.
We are also planning to have our Solo Exhibition from April 9th to 19th this year. More announcements to come this month.
Finally, even when the form is unseen, we are all connected and sustained by one another. Simply holding the forest in your awareness, wherever you are, may already begin to move something in this moment. As a first step, let's take a deep breath 🍃
We warmly invite you to walk with us in whatever way feels true and possible for you.
With HOPE for TRUE PEACE,
Between Forest and Us Project
Akiko Kodama
L'oiseau Lune (Philippe Cleenen)
& the Forest Spirits