If I had £1 for every person who has said to me recently "the world is going mad" I might almost decamp to tropical climes.  

These words, while spoken lightly, belie uncertainty, sometimes masking a very real fear.  

At the same time my ex-soldiering husband is frequently stopped and asked if he thinks we are heading towards an all-engulfing war.

It is not difficult to see why these questions are being mooted when we look around us.  

The world is a tragic and scary place, without a doubt.  But instead of despairing over the big issues we can seemingly do so little about, perhaps it helps to focus closer to home.  

Often when we do, things don’t seem quite so unmanageable after all.

Seldom it seems to me, have the spring cherry trees blossomed so abundantly.  

Our parks and green spaces, filled with energetic birdsong, are prolific with primroses, early bluebells fast pushing through.  

Whitlingham Lake, with its brand-new facilities, is a joy to behold.

We are told spending just five minutes a day contemplating nature can radically transform our mental health.

Which is why it’s so good to see primary school pupils actively engaged with digging, planting - and often feasting on the results. Because it is the children I fear for most of all in today’s climate of uncertainty and fear.

The old adage ‘Childhood never waits’ has seldom seemed more apt than today. 

We hear talk of an ‘anxious generation’ the young under siege from social media, and countless childhoods marred by Covid.

Those very same childhoods are now being subjected to truly horrific images of war and destruction, of famine and of searing loss.

I am told by teachers, children as young as five are asking about depictions of war they have seen in the media.  

These are not tragic youngsters living out their childhoods in a war zone, or a refugee camp; but children who should feel safe in their beds at night.  Little wonder perhaps, anxiety is such a feature of their young lives.

Children look to adults for hope and reassurance, and it is for us to provide.  

The Princess of Wales gave us an extraordinary textbook lesson in how to do precisely that, just a few days ago.  ‘All kids need is a little help, a little hope and someone who believes in them’ writes the American basketball player Magic Johnson.  To that, I would only add - a little love as well.

Currently, one in six of our schoolchildren don’t possess a book of their own.  

Meanwhile parts of Norfolk, as we know, have the unenviable reputation of matching only Truro and the Scilly Isles in the number of children admitted to hospital suffering from malnutrition and related conditions.  

Kind teachers know which little children are hungry when they try and eat the sand.  This despite the quite outstanding work of the Norfolk Community Foundation together with other agencies, first feeding our children in order they may then be taught.

It isn’t always easy to hold out the beacon of hope - but hold it we must.  In my counselling days

I often reassured my clients I would hold the hope for them until they were strong enough to hold it for themselves.

The flip side of hope is gratitude.  

Gratitude to the countless individuals and organisations who reach out to inspire our young people and present them with opportunities to follow their dreams. The tangible excitement at the recent two-day Careers Festival for schoolchildren, held at the RNAA Showground, was a joy to behold.

Gratitude to teachers and mentors who by enthusing and encouraging, see young lives transformed beyond measure, as a result. Gratitude to everyone in society who holds the hope for our young people until they are in a place where they can grasp it for themselves. 
Easter is traditionally a time of hope.  

Might we take time this Easter to look creatively at ways we can reach out to children who know little of hope, even less, perhaps, of the simple joys of childhood?

If it takes a village to raise a child, it may take a county to support a generation of youngsters who need an extra hand.  Norfolk is good at that, without a doubt.

The Lady Dannatt MBE is HM lord-lieutenant of Norfolk