It’s been a week of remembering, celebrating and feeling immense gratitude.
Victory in Europe 80 years ago spoke of peace, an end to fear and suffering, of hope for all. It has added poignancy today as it appears some individuals and some nations have moved away from recognising the courage and strength required to be peacekeepers and peacemakers. We can hope that those who have that courage and strength can prevail against the greed and avarice of warmongers.
Eighty years ago, my father was in a Baltic prisoner-of-war camp, liberated but yet to be repatriated. My mother, a cypher officer, was in England, wondering what was happening to him and what would happen to them now. She was celebrating the unconditional surrender of the German army and the end of hostilities but had lost a brother and many friends as well as having her new husband shot down and imprisoned. Their lives had been changed for ever. They would never be the same people they were before the war.
War comes at a terrible cost.
This week, the freedom that we have to move freely without fear, to enjoy the sounds of birdsong rather than bombing, to choose how to live our lives has seemed even more precious. It is because of those who sacrificed so much for this peace that we can live like this. We must not forget.
On VE Day, I heard the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage deliver his commemorative poem, words full of the fragility of peace, of memory. If you haven’t heard or read it, then here is In Retrospect.
The Peace Pagoda in Milton Keynes is just a short walk from our current mooring. A thousand cherry trees and cedars are planted on the hill around the Pagoda in remembrance of victims of all wars.
Through the constant of trees, annual reminders of blossom and flowers, we can and must keep memories and reminders of the horrors and sacrifice of war to keep us and future generations as peacekeepers.
Simon Armitage puts it so well when he talks of the paper thin petals of the scarlet poppies appearing in expected and unexpected places year on year. They carry a huge weight as vital reminders for us all:
They nod and they nag,
reminding us not to forget, flagging a red alert
as their crumpled petals unfold.
At our peril, do we ignore their red alert.
Pickingupducks 