Remembrance

I have always hesitated to bring up the subject of Remembrance because it means different things to different people.  but to-day is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and in many commonwealth countries.  We are told we are at the most dangerous period we have been at since 1945 when we said "never again" and at the time i think we meant it!

So why do I link the practice of "Journalling" which I have only just been introduced to by the amazing (Speaker) Debbie Bryan and remembrance?  Well they call it "reflection" so whichever, I was writing up my journal last night - at the same time in the background was The Royal British Legion event at the Royal Albert Hall.  I cant remember ever missing this, although I must have done when I was in Sri Lanka.  You are puzzled as to where this is all going?  Well when I met my husband we looked for things in common - he was an avid brass band man - played for Sir Malcolm Sergeant  sometimes, but I was military bands.  I was military bands because my father was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) so I was a forces child.  I knew no other life.  Where he went I went.

So, brass bands were also a part of my life.  The brass band which saw us off from the pier at Singapore on the SS Empire Windrush, to the brass band which played on the top deck of the SS Empire Orwell through the Suez Canal on our way home after 4 years in the Far East. 

So last nights remembrance event was particularly poignant; there was special attention given to the children of the "fallen" ; the reflection or remembrance of their days before their father or mother had been taken from them in war, their pride in their parent, their grief at losing them, but I was particularly struck by one reflection that - coming together for Remembrance Day, was for them like coming to a family event.  Only those who are "forces children" experience this particular - strange but poignant feeling.

In my own case very many years later on Facebook I happened to say I had lost touch with those I lived with for that period and one gentleman contacted me to say he had lived in Sri Lanka the same time as I had, we had gone to the same RAF school in Katanayake but our paths had not crossed back then.  Well they certainly have now !!  We met up just once in Calais.  I was there on a project meeting, he came up from his home in southern France and we had just an evening together, reminiscing.  The friendship has deepened and he is probably one of my closest confidants.

So to come full circle - reflection or remembrance triggers so many other memories in our lives.  I will continue my Journalling & no doubt reflect on my  learning - its all part of life's rich pattern and part of our development into adulthood and if it helps us to join the dots and make sense of the universe then it has to be good.

https://www.bizicard.in/ChristineLester

Christine Lester, content generated 11/11/2024

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