Let there be light in our world. Let’s forget bombs and suffering. Let’s start afresh……

The humble torch is a ‘must have’ item here in darkest Cornwall where streetlit roads are few and far between. We never go anywhere without at least one of them. Of course they do come in useful for beating off the Beast of Bodmin Moor too when we’re on our way home from the pub. Though usually the main difficulty we encounter getting home from the pub is our own slightly wonky walk. Well, very wonky actually sometimes – depends on the quantity of St Austell HSD we’ve consumed.

I’m struggling with this really for once. It’s rare for me to be stuck for words. In fact, I’m so confident with writing this diary these days, I took to building the dictionary.com word of the day into my text each day a few weeks ago just for an extra challenge but this week it seems smug and trivial. Just like trotting out silly stories when many Londoners are still waiting to see whether their loved ones are in a hospital bed unable to communicate their name to staff…..or worse, that their body is still lying in the tangled wreck of a train in an underground tunnel.

Yesterday I was full of anger and fire. Today I am just tired of the way terrorism has changed our world. Tired of these sick people whose actions have tightened security to such an extent that we are forced to wait in interminable queues to then be treated by security forces with no respect or decency when we try to travel. Tired of cold sweats when it’s difficult to see who a suitcase belongs to on a crowded train. Tired of the gung-ho attitude of those who want to indiscriminately blast away at far away countries because they wrongly believe all the citizens of that country are part of a huge conspiracy against us.

No to blind anger and hatred. No to ‘shooting first, thinking later’. No – we can’t allow a violent attack lead to more violence. We have to stop this cycle.

Let’s start to chase away those shadows. Light our way.

Last year light was my subject too - but then it was shiny, happy starbursts...I love that photo. Two years ago, I was angry that my privacy was being invaded but forbidden by David from saying so.