little girl, big questions

E has a way of finding the most out-of-the-blue times to ask me the most difficult questions.

The other day as I sat scrapbooking in my craft room, she wandered down and said:

Mommy - why do wars start?

oiy.

I picked her up and hugged her first. She was not distracted. Mommy - why do wars start?

And this is what I told her.

I said - do you know what a war is? A war is when two groups of people start fighting and when they fight they often hurt or kill each other. Sometimes they live in the same country and sometimes they live in different countries. And sometimes, but luckily only twice, has there been lots of countries involved and that's called a world war.

But Mommy, why do wars start?

Well, I said - wars start because one group thinks they are better than another group. Maybe they think their religion is better or their skin colour is better or the way they live their life is better and so they want to take control, to take over leadership, to run the government. And in the course of the that they kill people.

The sad thing is though E, that there are lots of people who don't want to fight and they get caught in the middle. In Iraq, there is a war going on. Iraq is in the Middle East - that's kind of between Africa and where Auntie Elfreide lives. We aren't at war as Canadians, but the Americans are at war and they are our neighbours so that's why we hear a lot about it.

And the Americans, they changed the leadership but the government in Iraq isn't secure, it isn't stable and no one has jobs and the money, the economy isn't stable so the Americans can't come home yet. But the sad thing is E, there are families, moms and dads and kids - just like us - who don't want to fight, who don't want to be in a war. They just want to raise their kids and live their life and be happy and sometimes, they get hurt or killed just because they are there.

Imagine, E, if we were right here in our home and two groups of people in Canada decided they wanted to start fighting. We don't want to fight. We just want to have our family and work and be happy. So we try to mind our own business and one day, J and Dad go to get water and there's a bomb there and they are killed. That's what's happening to the Iraqi people and its so very sad.

Mommy -

I don't know E, I don't know why wars start.

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May the New Year bring a little peace. Blessings to those families in the middle of wars.