We weren’t long into the weekend until the horrors in Paris were unveiled on Friday 13th November. The majority of the rest of the world stood in shock, solidarity and support for France as the country declared a state of emergency and social media quite rightly, talked of little else.

It’s hard to know when an appropriate and sensitive time to begin to talk of other things, as life invariably goes on for us who are not immediately affected. We are each in our own bubble of relative safety and were it not for the media, we wouldn’t even be aware of actions of inexplicable  cruelty & cowardice.

And yet, it’s important that life does goes on. That we do not change our daily patterns and lifestyle out of fear of an event that is statistically extremely unlikely to happen. We might be living in fear that our democratic leaders make a choice of all out war and that by participation, we invite such terrorism more immediately into our own lives. And we might question whether love, as is being currently prescribed, is truly strong enough to counter fanaticism by those whose hatred and indoctrination runs so deep that they know of little else.

And so, I write of hygge. That feeling of cosiness, of well being, of freedom from fear, a chance to reflect and gain perspective and to rejoice in that freedom of which we were reminded of and celebrated only four days ago by wearing our poppies with pride.

So light candles. Laugh with your children and play board games. Eat, drink & be merry with friends. Be compassionate and share sorrow. Show support and unification. Explore the world on aeroplanes, visit crowded landmarks in capital cities on romantic weekend getaways and dance to your favourite music even though and even because others are now no longer able. To do anything else would be a crying shame for those who have gone before us and fought so hard for the peace that we can easily take for granted and that others will try so darned hard to destroy. And most of all, never, ever let them succeed.