Remembrance

What will I be Mummy

When I grow up tall

Will the world be safe for me

Will it be here at all

So many people fighting

Too much waste in the bin

Can’t we all be kinder

Isn’t it all a sin

I want to drive a digger

To swim beneath the sea

Will there still be sea creatures

When my children are with me

I hear these words float around me

Shooting, drowning, war

Should I know the meaning when I’m only three

Take me to the beach Mum

Chase me down the sand

Smother me in kisses

Squeeze my tiny hand

But think about my future

The world you leave behind

Try to make it better Mum

Keep it front of mind

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This Remembrance Sunday I have remembered.  I pause to appreciate all the lives lost but I find it hard to escape the present.  The sheer hell of many lives, plunged in front of us on social and conventional media minute by minute.  I think about the future and, closer to home, the Junior Doctor/NHS meltdown.

Sometimes it’s overwhelming and only mindfulness and hope can stop us feeling utterly powerless to help.  Let us remember though that it was each individual life and soul which defeated evil in the second world war.  Each of them believed in themselves and their own value in creating a better future for their children and children’s children.

My pre-New Year’s resolution is to rekindle this belief, appreciate each day that small kindnesses, extra efforts and thoughtful behaviours not only make life a much easier and more enjoyable journey but might contribute to a better society for our kids.  I am forgetting smart phones exist when my kids are around, teaching them the value of kindness and face to face friendship and attempting to pull them back from materialism, reconnecting them with the environment while not segregating them from their peers (I’ll tell you how that goes!)