11th hour, 11th day, 11th month

It's no wonder Australian soldiers were dancing in the streets of London.
The 11th November 1918 marked the end of the bloodiest war the world had seen, 'the war to end all wars'. Of the Australian population of 5 million, 300,000 young men went to the Great War. More than two thirds of soldiers were casualties of the war: 60,000 Australian soldiers died and 156,000 were wounded or taken prisoner.

What have we learnt from this 'war to end all wars'?

Not enough to bring peace among nations.

Wars and conflicts continue to create new graves with the same echoes of unrealized hope.

There is a Chris de Burgh song called "The Getaway" and these words which are part of the lyrics are so pertinent to my beliefs.

"We're sick and tired of hearing,
That the world is gonna blow,
So there's something we'll
do to the leaders
Before we go;

Let's stick'em in a room
together - Yeah!! -
And make them fight it out,
Until they see nothing from nothing
Will leave nothing at all"

I feel we will not end conflict until we have learned to cultivate peace in our own minds.

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"
~ Eve Merriam


This is a photo from NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 11th November 2009



"Today, in celebration of Galileo's telescopic achievements and as part of the International Year of Astronomy, NASA has used its entire fleet of Great Observatories, and the Internet, to bring the center of our Galaxy to you. Pictured above, in greater detail and in more colors than ever seen before, are the combined images of the Hubble Space Telescope in optical light, the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory in X-ray light. A menagerie of vast stars fields are visible, along with dense star clusters, long filaments of gas and dust, expanding supernova remnants, and the energetic surroundings of what likely is our Galaxy's central black hole".

What an absolutely AWESOME picture!!!