I read this today on a BBC website, it is a poem by a 9 year old called Joshua Peters
Heaven is all around, Life in War 1914-1918
 Lying without motion on the ground
The lost ones have been found.
The dead have been crowned.
Heaven is all around.
Those soldiers fought in war
With the Devil at their doors.
Now without a sound,
Heaven is all around.
Don’t leave them there, for God’s sake,
End their loved ones ache.
Heaven is here.
How lovely that a nine year old can express such wonderful words on a war that happened almost a century ago.

So this weekend the US passed 4,000 deaths in Iraq, no matter what your belief is about the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq..I hope that we can unite in saying that 4,000 lives lost, is a sad day. It is a sad day for the world when we send our family, our husbands, our wives to face the potential loss of their precious lives.
I just wonder when we as a world will learn that war causes such tremendous pain, conflict never seems to solve problems, and that we all as human beings should value life and find …read more

As many of you know – and also feel – the wars around the world cause me such pain. It is the loss of life, the futility of losing loved ones. After losing someone close to you, you value life..you don’t want anyone to suffer the pain of bereavement. The stories of the war tend to be sad, depressing and painful..but I came across one that I thought was uplifting and wanted to share it with you, over at B.L Ochman’s weblog
 ”This bowl is part of an exhibit, titled “Offering Reconciliation,” which displays the work of Israeli and Palestinian artists, …read more

I saws this quote from Anne Frank
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
Wow, with all Anne Frank had to endure during the war, if she could still think about the beauty around her then that should inspire us to do the same…look around today and see that beauty. That beauty in nature, in smiles, in the architecture, in the play of children, in the sunset, in the sunrise….

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“A US soldier has been withdrawn from Iraq after his two brothers were killed in action, echoing the Oscar-winning film “Saving Private Ryan”, it was reported Friday.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