Remember in any shade you desire

Tomorrow, my children will be involved in ‘Remembrance Sunday’, on this the 100^th year since the armistice was signed to end WW1. It’s also a great day of celebration, our youngest boy turns 7. Since he was born I have refused to share his day of Joy with the act of public mourning. Children need to be celebrated. They are the future.

This year is different. Although we did celebrate his birthday 2 days early which means he gets to play with his new toys all weekend! Bonus! The kids are however, now old enough to debate, to form opinion, to move deeper into the process of understanding the big wide world for themselves. So, on Sunday we take a step with them.

As they take their own walks tomorrow and as we discuss the wearing of poppies, laying of wreaths, hearing of stories and sharing of grief, I’m feeling the need to write again.

The Purpose and Colour of Suffering

Remember in any shade you desire

Grief has no colour, no permissions are needed to cry, to wail, to scream.

Some prefer to forget, but what the eye has seen can only be healed, never forgotten.

There is no colour for healing like there is no colour for suffering,

Neither fits exactly into a monocoloured box.

Let such great suffering coexist with great learning.

And let the learning throw light on the construct of  ‘US & THEM’, the very basis of conflict.

Together we inhabit a wonderful, bright, creative and colourful world, go and explore it.

Unlearning the culture of war, of hatred, of violence is indeed heroic and courageous.

Learning to live in peace, to accept and understand, to celebrate difference and diversity. The path is less travelled because it is not an easy one.

Today, tomorrow and 100 years from now let the seeds planted in our acts of remembrance, private, public, internal and external, grow into deeds of peace.

Lest We Forget