Frank's Peace Lily

Flashback November 6, 2006. The eve of the first BlogBlast For Peace.
Dona Nobis Pacem in the Blogosphere was full of visitations and surprises. A few hours before midnight and I had yet to post my Peace Globe and write my own article.

About that time I received an email from Canadian blogger and artist Frank Sirianni, who had been my partner-in-peace for weeks leading up to the big day. Although I've never met Frank or his wife Lola, we became friends as we worked on the project, burning the cable wires between two countries and brewing lots and lots of coffee. They were dealing with a terrible blizzard in Canada. I wasn't sure if Frank would even have power.

We were tired, we were excited, we were overwhelmed with emails.

Globes were pouring in from all over the world.

It was phenomenal. Magical. Frank's subject line read,.
 "Urgent!!!! Read Please!!! Send More Globes After!!!"

Oh great, I thought. Something is wrong. He's losing power, there's a problem with the Peace Globe gallery, or worse yet, he's out of coffee. I don't have time for this, Frank. I'm working on a story here....

This is what he wrote,

"Just wanted to share something, and yes it's going into my dona nobis pacem post. You mentioned spooky in your last email, well, when you first emailed me about peace globe, it was around the time when I received something from my daughter. I really think it motivated me to help you with this. For a surprise, she placed it as her desktop background on the computer and left it on, and disabled the screen saver so it would be there when I came home. I knew earlier, but this was the first time I got to see. I've added it as an attachment. "

What he added reduced me to an immediate puddle of tears.
 Meet Lily Alice

 in utero on the Eve of Dona Nobis Pacem November 7, 2006

- the night I was introduced to the youngest ever participant to blog for peace - Frank Sirianni's first grandchild born March 28, 2007. 

Isn't she beautiful?
And about that story. This little Peace Lily brought a magic all her own. It was just the first of many such "coincidences" surrounding the peace globe movement. What prompted him to send me that ultrasound that evening I'll never know but will always be thankful he decided to share it with me at that moment. He had no idea I was about to connect the dots on the other side of the blog chair. You see, Frank saw little Lily as his motivation and placed her on a peace globe. What he didn't know was that during the same span of a few hours I'd discovered my own inspiration in a bowl of homemade marbles, and literally watched the story write itself. This was my reply to Frank that evening in response to his news...

"Frank, Once I picked myself up and stopped crying I was OK.
OH MY GOD.
And congratulations! How can you even function??
It's official now. Totally official. Mimi Lenox will write a book about the Peace Globes and Frank Sirianni will become her illustrator.
My post, Frank. It's about my grandfather.

This is pure magic. "


Welcome to the world, Lily Alice.

I feel as if I've known you for a very long time.