Peace Pilgrims
Messages of peace and compassion
My mother told me that a group of Buddhist monks are currently walking from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D.C. and it got me thinking about the Peace Pilgrim, an inspirational woman that walked for peace across the United States seven times for 28 years.
From Google AI: “A group of Buddhist monks is currently undertaking a 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace” pilgrimage from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to promote peace, compassion, and nonviolence. The journey, which began on October 26, 2025, is scheduled to conclude in mid-February 2026.
The walk is a non-political, spiritual journey intended to inspire individuals to cultivate inner peace and extend compassion to their communities. The monks walk mindfully and often in silence, relying on community support and generosity for food and shelter. Upon reaching the U.S. Capitol in February, they plan to advocate for the official recognition of Vesak (Buddha’s birthday and enlightenment day) as a U.S. federal holiday.”
This is 2026. The monks are Buddhist.
The Peace Pilgrim was American, “not part of any particular faith” and she walked from 1953-1981.
She was so full of energy to the very end. She wore her purple clothes with the words “PEACE PILGRIM” on the front and “25,000 MILES” on the back to encourage people to reach out to her. Starting in 1953, when she “retired” and moved fully into the spiritual life, she decided to step out and walk across America to preach her message for peace.
Here is her final interview in 1981, a month before she was killed by a car. You can see from her eyes and her energy that she’s a boddhisatva. She is full of boundless, joyful energy or as she describes it, she is “walking on the endless energy that runs on inner peace.” The only things she owned were the clothes on her back and a few possessions that fit in her pockets. Her message was one of peace and compassion.
From her website: https://www.peacepilgrim.org/
“Born Mildred Lisette Norman on July 18, 1908, Peace Pilgrim grew up among a close-knit extended family on a poultry farm in Egg Harbor City, NJ. After enjoying the “flapper” era as a young woman, her inner compass slowly moved toward seeking a greater purpose.
Following an unhappy marriage, she embarked on a personal transition that culminated with her hiking the 2050-mile Appalachian Trail – the first woman to do so in one season. On this journey, she had a vision that guided the rest of her life.
Relinquishing her name and possessions, she stepped out in front of the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, CA on Jan. 1, 1953 wearing a blue tunic imprinted with her new identity: PEACE PILGRIM. For the next 28 years, she criss-crossed North America, touching many thousands of hearts, minds and lives as she walked joyfully on her pilgrimage for peace.”
Her main message was that “when enough of us find inner peace, our institutions will become peaceful and there will be no more occasion for war.” As simple and as complicated as that.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh advocated for peace during the Vietnam war. Neither side wanted him to spread his messages and as a result he had to leave Vietnam for the rest of his life. He lived in France and continued to promote peace and compassion as long as he lived.
In Vietnam in 1965, as his country was ravaged by the Vietnam war, members of his School of Youth for Social Service risked their lives and frequently died trying to take care of people. During this time he wrote a poem, one part of which reads:
promise me: Even as they strike you down with a mountain of hatred and violence; even as they step on you and crush you like a worm, even as they dismember and disembowel you, remember brother, remember: man is not our enemy.
Reflecting fifty-four years later, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: “Man is not the enemy. Our enemy is our anger, hatred, greed, fanaticism, and discrimination against men. If you die because of violence, you must meditate on compassion in order to forgive those who kill you. When you die realizing this state of compassion, you are truly a child of the Awakened One. Even if you are dying in oppression, shame, and violence, if you can smile with forgiveness, you have great power.”
The Peace Pilgrim says of war in 1981:
“The basic conflict in our world today is not between nations, it’s between two opposing beliefs. The belief that you can overcome evil with more evil. Of course those people are out there multiplying the evil. Now this is the official position of every major nation in the world. This is the war way. And [then there] is the belief... that evil can only be overcome by good. That is the basic conflict in our world today.”
When I was young, it felt to me like “Peace and Love” were a relic of a bygone era. A nostalgic slogan from the past. Large wars felt distant. Rare. Diminishing.
Sadly it feels like the wave of collective global anger is rising.
It’s in times like these that I try to remember the heralds for peace. They are reminders to find the strength to not fall into anger. Reminders to always try to find compassion.
We can all be pilgrims for peace.
PS: This post by Tasshin goes much deeper on the Peace Pilgrim’s teaching and story in case that’s of interest.
Beautiful. thank you
What a wonderful, timely and uplifting post! Thank you.