Last night we sat outside with a glass of wine and cheese and biscuits, overlooking one of Britain's most beautiful beaches.
We had the whole beach to ourselves and sat there listening to the ocean breath as the waves crashed in and then retreated rhythmically, we were fully immersed in this natural wonder, we were at peace!
It made me realise as if I had not already what a beautiful place this world is and to question WTF are we doing hell bent on destroying it and why could not everyone in the world enjoy this same peace, surely they deserve this as much as me?
If as a grandparent I could get a Jewish grandparent, a Palestinian grandparent, a Ukrainian grandparent and a Russian grandparent all around this table in this beautiful place I am pretty sure we would all want the same thing, a safe and happy world for our children and grandchildren to grow up in.
We would not want kidnapping, bombing and killing of largely innocent people, we would not want to repeat past mistakes, we would not want vengeance for crimes of the past that just perpetuates hatred, we would indeed seek justice but again in a way that is not a tit for tat solution.
In our three score years and ten we will have seen many good and bad things, we may have experienced devastating acts against ourselves or our loved ones and we may have had anger and hatred in our lives but hopefully we will have over all these years become wise in our lives and look differently on the past.
We would want to work though discussion and understanding to move away from the hatred created by past actions and move forward with finding common ground, only requiring what we need to be safe and not being greedy or selfish wanting more than we really need.
Maybe our governments should instead of listening to corporations, billionaires, dictatorial leaders and their own egos, they should instead listen to their grandparents.
Grandparents for Peace