A reflection on life since 2012.

As the third anniversary of the Great Schism of 2012 approaches this Sunday I look back with some ambivalence.
 I wish at times that things could have been different and that we had been able to find a way to get through our bad times and move forward together. Having said that if that had happened I would not have met the people I have since I moved here and that would be a shame.
I do miss the American connection though, I loved the trips for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the insight they gave me on how normal everyday Americans live their lives.
I hope if I get to retire when I'm still fit enough to travel to the US regularly and spend time there in some of the places I came to like such as Yuma, Washington DC, Columbia SC, and especially Vegas.
I'm sorry that I was such a bad husband that Madame felt that she had to leave and go back, it's a source of sadness to me that she had to take such a drastic step to be happy and that I failed in making our life together work. 
I suppose the good thing to come out of it was that I had to move out of the old place and start again which was beneficial. It has made me a better person I think. Not that I was a particularly bad person, it was just that I had settled into a rut, in fact we both had, which didn't leave a lot of room for the other half of the relationship.  
Still that's all water under the bridge now. we are where we are and life will take us where it will.
I've not really said very well what I started out to say and will maybe revisit this again. I just felt the urge to say something about my feelings as this anniversary approaches and to use this as a vehicle to put into words the thoughts that build up at this time of year.
I've no desire to go back, just to hope that next time, if there is a next time I can avoid the mistakes that caused the termination of something that started out with such promise and optimism.
Anyway, I've said enough for now. I may revisit the subject when, if, my subconscious mind leads me to but until then Peace and Love. ttfn x

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why do

They do it?

These thugs with their

Guns and their bombs and

Their fanatical hatred of all they

Despise, they have no heart or soul,

Just hatred leading them to kill

And to maim innocent people

Who've done them no

Harm; No reason,

No sense,

Why?

Written in sadness

I'm writing this as a Humanist. I have no religious axe to grind, I'm just a bloke who yearns for peace.
I don't know why people reach a stage in their lives where they feel so removed from humanity that they see fit to attack and murder hundreds of innocent people in the name of religion.
These thugs and extremists are not religious, they don't reflect the thoughts and desires of millions of people who believe in a god; they are criminals following their own twisted agenda to an end that I can't fathom.
All extremism is destructive, any form of fundamentalism is bad. People should be allowed pass their lives in peace and harmony without worrying about whether they are going to be killed by some evil-doer for no good reason other than their skin colour, religion or creed whilst they are at school, in an office, on a farm or having an evening of rest and relaxation.
I have no solution, bombing and shooting are not the basis for negotiation. Extremists by their nature are extreme in their views and beliefs, they see no value in anything other than the total destruction of their so-called enemies so any form of reasonable discourse is likely to fail.
Should they be fought in the same way as they fight? I don't know. As a pacifist I abhor violence and wish there was a way to deal peacefully with this type of destructive behaviour but as I say I can offer no solution.
Violence begets violence, all I can wish for is that somehow the perpetrators of such evil acts as happened yesterday in Paris will one day, somehow come to their senses and realise that they have taken the wrong path, forswear violence and agree to live harmoniously with others.
I'm not holding my breath.
I'll end in sadness, hoping against hope that Peace and Love will prevail. ttfn x

Dreaming Spires

Dreaming Spires

Through the Garden of England

And the Capital City

To the City of Dreaming Spires

I travelled today

The heart of the South you may say

But my heart lies elsewhere

In an ancient Northern Kingdom

And in the cradle of a Civil War.

I'm not sleepy

Bill

There was an old fellow called Bill

Who felt he was over the hill

Then a met a young woman

Who was someone quite stunning

Which livened old Bill like a pill

Edward Lear, eat your heart out, or more likely spin in your grave.

Yet another poem-In London

In London

Alone

Just me

An hotel room

with the windows open

the sounds of the street

Rise up to meet the silence

As I sit and contemplate their lives

The people driving, walking, riding past the hotel

Shouts and yells filter up through the night sky

A baby cries, she is out late, I wonder why

The city at night is no place for a young child

Travellers, perhaps, late off the train coming to stay, maybe even here

A siren now, ambulance, fire or police an accident or a crime

Who knows, not me in my room here on floor five

listening as the buses, cars and bikes roll past me

Oblivious to my existence not knowing I hear them

nor caring as they hurry by, to where?

To home, to night shift, to party

Anonymous noises but still quite familiar

a droning hubbub of bustle

A crazy man laughs

A woman screams

A yell

London

The Sun Rises

The Sun Rises

The Sun rises 

On another day

Life goes on 

So we hope

Perhaps we pray

That things improve 

And people stay

We move along 

Our different streams

Lives come together 

Then they part

Taking a piece 

Of the other

Until the Sun

Rises once more

Not one of my better poems perhaps. Still it says what's in my mind and I hope conveys a sense of hope; although at first reading it does have a gloominess about it which might cloud the intention to say that each day brings with it the chance for life to improve for anyone feeling low or not being able to see the sun rising in their life.

Anyway, there it is. Peace and Love. ttfn x