This column is written by Girish Patel, a yoga teacher, musician, Indian food chef and co-founder of the Stroud Sacred Music Festival. He is marking his 60th year with a three month spiritual journey around the UK.

I have started The Journey of Peace 2019.

For me, there are many layers to this.

It is about celebrating the unity that lies within diversity.

It is about having music, food and meditation as the main basis of meeting a variety of communities and individuals.

It is about sharing the vision that other places can also host centres for Peace and the Arts, just like St Laurence Church in Stroud.

It is also a very personal pilgrimage around a land that has been very kind to me.

I am grateful to this land and its people for all that it has provided for me in my 53 years here after arriving at the age of six.

I am expressing my thanks by planting trees of peace everywhere I go, and lighting a candle from a candle that I got from a recent visit to Fatima in Portugal.

In March, I saw thousands of people, of all ages, walking for peace, an uncanny coincidence - or was it?

I am aiming to camp close to the earth.

I would like to walk as much as I can.

I would like to share tea with strangers and hear their story.

Every one of us has something special to offer.

I would like to know what that is from people I’ve never met before and maybe will never meet again.

I would like to discover what we have in common, as it is all too easy to see the differences.

I know that in the heart of everyone, there is a desire for peace, happiness and love.

Let us always remember this.