The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life

I was planted just a seed and through time I grew With each gentle breeze I pushed out my branches, green leaves appearing My branches ever reaching the sun Through time they have broken, and my direction has changed But still I reach up for the sky and the sun that calls my name Autumns have come and gone, my leaves change colors my aching limbs wanting a time to rest Cold snow captures my body and my limbs I catch the snowflakes and press them close to my chest Others see them on my bark, but they dress me in white in the cold winter nights The dews of morning awaken my very soul, The tingling feeling of the frost at my toes, the earth around me guiding my growth Seasons have come and gone, I have seen sunsets like no other, watched bombs fall from the skies Captured shooting stars and rainbows Lightning bolts across the skies I have seen eclipses and watched the rays of light captured in a moment as it brushes the skies and shades it’s morning light. I have seen children laugh and adults cry, I have seen death and smelt it knock at my door. I am a tree, I am a life As days grow shorter and my days are not so long, I still remember every shade of autumn, every ray of summer, every dress of winter, every delight of spring. I remember the days of plenty and the days of sorrow I am life and life like no other, I am a mother to many a place for a song to be written A heart to be penned and story to be hidden I am where memories have been made and heartaches are shed I am ……. Yes I am the passing of time….I am indeed a mother.

Immortalizing a WWII into something that it was not.

As I looked at pictures of the fun in some of the small towns in North Norfolk celebrating 1940s and listened to a ladies group who sings songs from WWII who was on Britain's Got Talent, I had to reflect on what my mum had said about the war. As we look back at history and see the clothes and family unit of war time Britain, have we forgotten those children who were sent to far off countries and places to get away from the war, many treated badly many although leaving war time England in fact ventured into a new war for their lives miles from home: those evacuees truly missed out on their childhood. Many children like my mum still to this day remember the images of the planes and bombs being dropped, never to be erased from their minds. Yet we dress up and celebrate this time period. Are we as human beings making light of how many families suffered, or are we commemorating the bravery of many? I think it is a hard one to say. Before talking with my mum these passed few days, I used to think it would be fun to dress up and go to one of those events but as I listened last night to a song sung by "The D-Day Darlings" a song sung by Vera Lynn "There'll Be Blue Birds Over," I took to heart each of the words being sung. It is so easy to not listen to the elderly to forget how much they have gone through and easily forget and often make light of many time periods in our history, I think it is good to reflect to and remember that what we make light of today was really very serious. My mum survived but, like many, the scars did too, if anything I think of when I see people celebrating the 1940s I think of all those who served, all those who did not come home, all those who did so much to keep this world safe and in that I am so thankful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vDFKba_WDE

Hurricane and WWII

As I sat waiting for Hurricane Florence to come near to where I lived I called my mum in England. All my life I have heard stories about WWII my mum grew up in WWII she is now 88 years old. She compared the hurricane to her time in the war and how the uncertainty must have been horrid but as I listened I quickly realized other than the uncertainty there was nothing similar. The people who grew up in that time or any time of war did not know for one minute what the next second would hold. No cell phones, television nothing just waiting to hear news on a radio. The innocence of childhood gone and taken. My mum recalled going to a field to collect walnuts from a tree and looking up at the sky in all innocence thinking that they were planes that were safe, but machine guns fired on that field. These people firing at an innocent child and her mum, my mum and my Nan laid in the field until they had gone. She talked how her mum, dad and herself knitted socks, gloves and scarfs and gave books to the gunnery people that she passed on her walk to the train station on the way to school. How they had no inside toilets, how windows were blacked out. She said " I don't want to remember but the memories just keep flooding back". This innocent person, her life changed forever not just in a hurricane but because of a war that she knew not when the end would be. My mum has fought many wars in her life and is indeed the bravest person I have ever known. I wished to God I could hug her. We all live our battles it maybe in our minds, maybe scared of a hurricane, but we often forget those who have gone through so much and are often forgotten. As a child I did not want to hear more about the war but as an adult all I wished I could do was to take all those fears away that she had and give her back a childhood I am sure she wished she had. You know as I listen to her she talks with love for all those people some never came home. I can thank Hurricane Florence for showing me to love more, listen more and just to be so thankful that my mum got to live through it all. I often forget to listen, to truly be attentive to someone talking to me. I think we all can learn from what my Mum said. She added "Laugh at life and life will laugh at you, go be happy always"