I look at Burma, I look at the earthquake in China, I look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I look at the seemingly nonsensical killings on our streets….death seems to surround us. There is part of me that sees the world almost getting used to death on a large scale….then there is another side that says we will never get used to death.
I think the difference is the personal nature. When it is someone close, when it is someone that we know, when we see the faces of the deceased….we feel a pain that is so strong, …read more

When will we as a world stop causing families so much pain, so much suffering? When will we be able to live together again, instead of taking life away….. My tears flowed when I heard about Jason Hubbard and his family.
“A US soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action, echoing the Oscar-winning film “Saving Private Ryan”, it was reported Friday.
 
Jason Hubbard, 33, will return to his family’s home in northern California after younger brother Nathan, 21, was one of 14 soldiers killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in northern Iraq on Wednesday.
 
The …read more

Each day I watch the news, today I see the US have now lost 3,706 soldiers in Iraq, the figures in Afghanistan are rising, when will it ever end? I think the world needs my mum – she would be great at sitting down all the leaders, banging her fists on the table, telling them what idiots they are and that she had, had enough! Stop these stupid wars or face the consequences…..none would mess with her, trust me!  
 The whole world, all religions are suffering loss and I can only imagine the level of pain across the world. You …read more

I continue to feel guilty about the effect of war on the world and also the effect on families. I don’t mean this post to be a political comment – far from it, whether the war is right or wrong is irrelevant to the families that are suffering loss. For me it is about how we support people, how we ensure that these children are helped to cope with loss, cope with their feelings so that we don’t have huge long term effects. Grief is not just a by product it is a real problem that we need to support. …read more

Following on from my last post on how my heart bleeds for the widows/widowers of the Iraq soldiers I have just read at the Washington Post that there have been  
- As of Thursday, July 5, 2007, at least 3,591 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,951 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.
The striking part for me is that 1,000 were not due to hostile action – for anyone …read more

I wish, as a world that we could find peace, find a way of living together rather than dying together. Death is always painful but for me, death through war seems wrong. My heart aches when I read about the widows of soldiers and cannot imagine their feelings. As civilians that benefit from others giving their lives for our safety we should never lose our gratitude, our  memories of how these brave people gave their lives for ours.
To bring this home – yesterday, the BBC wrote about the latest funeral
The widow and the two sons of a “great soldier” killed …read more

We live in a world in which conflict is almost a “given”. I cannot imagine what the wives, husbands, partners of our armed forces are going through but I salute them.
Grief is an extremely powerful emotion, but what must it be like to be waving your loved one off – not knowing if you will see them again.
The cycle of grief applies here as well, and takes enormous courage to live with on a day to day basis. I suppose belief is the key word
Belief in your love for each other
Belief that are doing what they believe in
Belief that they …read more