Looking Back

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

I suspect many of us will have been reflecting a lot over the last few weeks since Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, died. Rightly so too I think. Momentous moments should make us take time out to reflect. You need time to process something. We are not automatons.

I am of the generation which has only known her as our monarch and I think her passing has made us reflect on just how much change there has been during the course of her reign. Change is not the easiest thing to handle at times.

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I also suspect poetry is particularly effective in expressing reflections and certainly for me I know a good poem when I hear it or read it – it does make me feel something (which is the challenge of all good fiction too. It may be made up but your writing should give your readers something – even it if is “just” entertainment).

But there is something about poetry which does speak to the soul. I also think it is the hardest form of writing to do and I salute those who write it.

The Sixties
The decade in which I was born and the Queen handed over the World Cup to England later that year. I have some recollections of my first home in the East End of London though I wasn’t there for long. Dad had to move us to Hampshire due to his job leading us nicely to the next decade.

The Seventies
The era in which I grew up, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, and I still have the commemorative coin for that. The long hot summer of 1976 and Concorde are powerful memories from this time. (Bit ironic really since we’ve just had another long, hot summer and Concorde has been mothballed).

The Eighties
I finish school, go on to college, get my first job, meet my other half and marry him, move house (coming to Chandler’s Ford in that time). There are the royal marriages of the then Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Plus there is the Falklands War and the rapid developments in technology. Recall seeing Princes William and Harry leaving hospital as babes. If I needed something to confirm I’m getting on a bit, this is it.

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The Nineties
A time for royal divorces, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Windsor Castle fire. On a personal note I become a mum and take up writing seriously. A strange decade in many ways.

The Millennium Years
I learn so much about writing, mainly through rejections it has to be said. I also start going to writing events and making author friends. The then Prince Charles re-marries. I have my first story in print – A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions. The Queen has her Golden Jubilee.

The 2010s
The royal marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. I start having more success with my writing and venture into short story writing and flash fiction. I’m blogging for Chandler’s Ford Today by this point too. My, where does the time go?

The Queen has her Diamond Jubilee and welcomes grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, direct heirs. Britain does spectacularly well in the 2012 Olympics and we get a new James Bond girl very briefly – the Queen herself.

The 2020s to the present day
I now have two books to my name and have contributed to several anthologies by this point. The Queen continues to welcome new members to her family with births to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The Queen has her Platinum Jubilee and we discover what she kept in that handbag! Thought the skit with Paddington Bear was fabulous. I remember Paddington from the books and the wonderful cartoons put on BBC TV back in the 1970s ahead of the news and Nationwide. Again, where does the time go?

We lose the Queen and gain a King.

Looking Back – Why Do It?

There is much to appreciate. There is much I wish hadn’t happened especially in the news. And when someone, in this case the Queen, has been there, always there, for that to suddenly go does come as a shock. There is never a good time to lose someone you care about.

Even if you’re not a royalist, to lose someone who has tried to serve their country for over 70 years is something you’re not going to experience again and I think people are deeply aware of that. I’m not sure anyone will put in that length of service again at all (and if wrong, I certainly won’t be around to see it).

You do need to take time out before moving on, otherwise the past can hold you back and I don’t think that is what it is for. It is for learning from. It is to remember with gratitude those who did things for us so we didn’t have to (and this is especially true for those who fought in the wars).

Honouring someone who served – well, there should always be time for that. It is strange how a death tends to make us focus on such things. Too busy getting on with life the rest of the time to think about it I suspect though Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are two timely reminders to take time out to think and reflect. We need to. The best way to learn from mistakes is to remember we made them and what led to them.

The Queen’s passing has brought back memories of my now gone family. My late father’s parents were in the East End and the regular appearances of the late King and Queen during the war were much appreciated. Consistency, commitment and loyalty still count for something – as they should.

Looking Forward

Looking back can sometimes seem to have negative links. These are not always avoidable. When we reflect on the horrors of war, we should remember the horrors. But looking back can also encourage us to look forward – to making things better, to look at how we can do that and so on. And that is positive.

Conclusion

One of the readings at the services for the late Queen came from Ecclesiastes – “for everything there is a season”.

Taking time out to look back makes us recall that and I would hope encourage us to make the most of the life we have. It does not mean life is static. Changes happen. Some good, some bad. I’ve long loved books and stories but it took me a long time to get on and write some of my own.

Life moves on but every so often we should pause before we move on to the next stage. It is important to remember. It does us good and I do believe in the truth of the old saying “a country that forgets its history is destined to re-live it”.

No thanks to that one. I would rather remember, then move on.