ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we set the foundation for this book and why we feel it is so important to elevate the work on the ground toward building peace in communities around Colombia. It is a country that has experienced 60+ years of conflict and has been recognized for its efforts at ending the conflict with the Havana peace talks. While these peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were critically acclaimed, the smaller, more informal, less publicized community efforts are equally important, from our perspective. These efforts are what kept people alive. Writing about peace is no easy task. As much as the word “peace” appears in newspaper headlines, in political campaigns, in non-governmental organization (NGO) parlance, and in everyday conversations with friends and colleagues, the word escapes concrete definitions. This might be because the way peace manifests in societies is subtle, delicate, and sometimes difficult to see or grasp. In fact, whereas violence is spectacular and noisy, peace is discrete and subtle. Given this, we've repeatedly asked ourselves: how to write about the subtle nature of peace in a way that reveals the power of something so discrete – how to account for the strong yet delicate presence of peace?
