She made her living as a singer, lost her voice and subsequently found her purpose.

Local resident Pushkara Sally Ashford welcomes the Whidbey Island community to join her in building a traditional Gypsy wagon that she’ll use on a pilgrimage for peace.

Ashford will introduce all her plans for her “Sing Peace! Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony” from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 21 at Mukilteo Coffee Roasters on Crawford Road in Langley.

Jim Tolpin, founder of Port Townsend School of Woodworking, will be on hand to talk about “How to Build a Gypsy Vardo,” a course that Ashford intends to begin in May.

Singer-songwriter Laurence Cole will lead the group with “Re-enchant the World, Songs of Peace and Global Harmony.”

Ashford invites seniors, youths, adults and families, hoping to bring together young and old alike to join her and find out more about helping to build a vardo for global peace.

A peace activist since the 1960s, Ashford made her living as a teacher and singer, until decades into a life built around her voice, she lost hers.

“That was the point I realized I was supposed to shut up and listen,” Ashford said.

Learning to be quiet, to find an inner peace after so many years of fighting for outer peace, Ashford found solitude in India where she would live for seven years.

It was meditation that brought her back to herself and her purpose for living.

“The beacon of my mind was crowded with thoughts, and it all just stopped. Something happened that opened me,” she said.

After this life-changing experience, Ashford said all the noise of what previously seemed important fell to the background, and like a photograph of her life developing before her eyes, her passion and drive came into focus.

Her intention for the pilgrimage is to answer the questions she began to ask herself recently about the relevance of her life and how to serve the larger community.

The Gypsy vardo — a wooden living quarters that can be pulled along with a car or truck much like a trailer — is a symbol of simplicity, community, gathering and singing, Ashford said. It follows the concept of living small, taking up very little space in the world and having a smaller footprint on one’s planet.

At the same time, by traveling around in the vardo, Ashford hopes to bring communities to gather to talk and sing about peace.

“I want to be in touch with people who are looking at intentional community options as a way to solve the housing crisis,” she said.

Ashford intends to start building her wagon in May with the help of Tolpin’s workshop and anyone in the community who wishes to be involved in some way. Her goal is to have the little home on wheels finished by September.

She already has some community members interested in the project, including local builder Richard Epstein and his shop on Crawford Road, and an architect in the area.

Other projects Ashford envisions around the pilgrimage include an informal songwriting session for youths based on “Singing the Change You Want To Be” at Island Coffeehouse & Books, and a class for students to design an interactive Web site that could keep track of where the vardo goes during Ashford’s travels.

Ashford has managed to get some students involved already.

A South Whidbey High School computer-graphics class designed the poster and logo for the introductory event.

Proceeds from the afternoon will go to the South Whidbey Youth Scholarship Fund. A $10 donation is requested at the door, but no person will be turned away for lack of funds.