Surely, none of us can be left unaffected by the sadness of the First World War, or in fact any war. The remembrance today of the Armistice 100 years ago must have taken us all at some point to a place of reflection – a place of deep gratitude to all those people who gave their lives and suffered in so many ways to enable us to live with freedom. And without taking anything away from that gratitude I could not help but ask myself what have we learnt from the horror of our two world wars?? The war, pain, judgement, famine and strife continues throughout the world …..so was it worthless? Did the millions die in vain or have we in fact learnt anything from the horror of the war?

Whilst there is still terrible pain and suffering in our world, I do believe that as individuals we have all learnt something, it is our duty to do so, and it is up to each of us to reflect in our own way with wisdom …. It is up to everyone, especially those with any power or authority in the world to use this wisdom to bring about peace within themselves and allow this to spread to all humanity.

In this country we have a collective act of remembering the fallen and those who have given so much. Each village, town and city has a war memorial around which people gather to embrace all the emotions of regret, sadness, pride, gratitude and above all, hope. We can give thanks for the courage which won the war alongside the horror at the high price that was paid.

In our own way we can then go forward as individuals to do what we can, no matter how small, to help spread peace throughout our community and world. So we start within ourselves and the spread of Metta – the cultivation of kindness towards all beings. It is love that conquers all, not hate.

Metta can become part of our yoga practice and self-reflection during our time on the mat.

I look forward to seeing some of you tomorrow morning at 10 am to continue our yoga journey …. There are still a couple of spaces if you would like to drop in … All the money received for the class will be given to the Veterans Mental Health Charity https://www.combatstress.org.uk/. Please remember there are no yoga classes on Thursday 15th November but do feel free to come along to one of the Monday morning classes instead.