Thought for the Week

I WONDER if it is 11 o’clock as you are reading this.

I wonder if you have stopped what you are doing to think about this day.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the nation pauses for a moment. We remember.

We remember that 98 years ago today the First World War ended. It was to be the war to end all wars. Sadly, this was not the case. Sadly, war is raging in so many parts of the world that it is hard to imagine a world at peace.

Sadly, in a moment, in a heartbeat, some young soldier will lose his or her life, even at 11 o’clock today. Sadly. It is 11 o’clock, the time for remembering. For those of us who knew nothing of the pain, the misery and the horror of the trenches, we can only imagine.

We have heard stories of courage and selflessness to a degree we have never experienced, and can only imagine. We can only imagine and remember. As the poppies flutter with their blood red memories, many will still shed tears for those lost to their families.

We give thanks for the end of that awful war, but we grieve that war is still part of our lives.

We grieve that it was not the war to end all wars.

We grieve that fighting continues with a ferocity that terrifies us.

As we gather round our memorials this Sunday, we will remember again.

We will read aloud the names of the fallen and these will echo through the glens they once knew.

Let peace be their final epitaph.