Wishing for Happiness, Peace + Joy Around the World + in Detroit

Wishing for Happiness, Peace + Joy Around the World + in Detroit

 gingko2cr                   “I believe we create a more positive future through wishing.”                                                                                                                           —Yoko Ono 

It’s the start of the new year – 2015 and I’m making my list of wishes. There are many. Each year at least one comes true. And then there’s world peace. It’s always number one and that never seems to change. But that’s no reason to give up on it. Some things take time. So it goes back on top.

Another wish on my list has been lifelong – my wish for happiness, peace, and joy in Detroit.  I was born in Detroit and share its birth date of July 24. I moved back to Detroit when I married my late husband Charles Novacek and have made the city my permanent residence for nearly 20 years. The city has experienced some pretty rough spells. But that’s no reason to give up on it. The city’s on the mend.. Some things take time.

wishtreedetroitplaquecrOn April 29, 2000, Charles and I experienced an extraordinary “wish” occasion I will always remember. It was with 300 Detroit residents and Yoko Ono – multimedia artist, singer, peace activist and widow of John Lennon. Yoko was carrying on the work of her late husband. She appeared at Detroit’s Times Square Robert Hurst Park to dedicate “A Wish Tree for Detroit.” The gingko tree and granite stone “living sculpture” with a bronze plaque invited visitors to “whisper your wish to the bark of the tree.” Yoko spoke to the gathering and declared “I believe we create a more positive future through wishing.” She stated that she hoped the new art work would bring “happiness, peace and joy” to all who stopped by to see it. She was a gentle inspiration.

Yoko had made “wish” installations in other places around the world. For Detroit, she chose the gingko tree, considered a symbol of longevity, hope, resilience and peace for its beautiful fall color saying, “Yellow is the color of light.”

The tree’s delicate fan-shaped leaves have been prized for their beauty and copied by artists. Interestingly, there are many gingko trees in my Midtown Detroit Cass Corridor neighborhood. I have been collecting their leaves for years and pressing them and keeping them for good luck. Some are pictured above.

gingkobranchespragueWhen Charles and I visited Prague, Czech Republic we noticed the gingko leaf was a common motif used on its Art Nouveau buildings – decoration of the organic, of nature. Two of the best examples were the façades of Hotel Central and of Prague’s main train station.  Prague’s train station façade is now obscured by a freeway and Detroit’s wish tree goes unnoticed. In 2007 the Robert Hurst Park was razed to accommodate the new Rosa Parks Transit Center. The wish tree was removed temporarily and hopefully, will be replanted at the north end of the terminal with Yoko’s plaque mounted on a nearby granite boulder.

Take time in 2015 to create a more positive future for the world. Visit the Rosa Parks Transit Center in Detroit and “Whisper your wish to the bark of the tree.”  Each year at least one comes true!

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