I find that the number of people I know that are no longer on speaking terms with their relatives seems to grow with each passing year, mothers not speaking to daughters, brothers and sisters parted by silence, fathers and sons in bitter separation and other combinations of consanguineous divorce.

In the words of the song “You always hurt the one you love the one you shouldn’t hurt at all” although directed at lovers the pain of interpersonal conflict is very much the same.

Most of us attend church services of some kind from time to time in our lives and presumably say The Lord’s Prayer aloud, one of our wishes is to be forgiven as we forgive others, easier said than done, but the strength has to be mustered, maybe you know that you are in the right but a bit of humble pie never poisoned anyone and is far better than the starvation of unresolved recrimination.

Should you ever be by the graveside of one you did not reconcile with or never said goodbye to, the pain can only get worse.

David Otter