Are you ever surrounded by noise that you have no power to stop? This past week has been like that in this house-banging, drilling, builders shouting, our dog barking, the de-humidifier humming, the cars racing past in the road outside. I saw a picture of a peaceful loch in Scotland and wished I was there.

But this morning I read my sister-in-law’s account of her life right now in Qatar and I was ashamed. Her phone sounds any time an attack is imminent, which is frequent. Somehow, my complaints about building noise seem ridiculous, when others are living through war.

Looking back over the times with my two when they were babies, the idea of a peaceful night was a distant dream. But then it passed. I hope and pray that the bombing ceases soon and that peace comes quickly, permanently. 

So any time you give off about something disrupting your life, spare a thought for the child in a war zone with their hands over their ears, or the parents pacing the floor with a baby who just won’t settle. If that’s you, I pray that silence will cover you and will be as golden as you long for.