Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 513):

O God, you are my God;
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

Last night, Russia destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley in yet another attack on the Odesa region.
Today, they killed two Ukrainian children (10 and 16 years old) when a missile hit their home in the Druzhba village of the Donetsk region.
There are reports that China may be providing military aid to Russia.

My mind is ready to explode with all this news, yet when I look around, I see the beauty of God’s creation, I listen to my son’s dreams, and try to find hope in everyday things. How do these worlds coexist? How do we make sense when living in both of them at the same time?

Inna Honchar (Інна Гончар) put it beautifully in a poem that I loosely translated into English (it’s rather an interpretation). Her poem was written in memory of two heroes from my hometown whose lives were brutally cut short by Russian weapons last summer.

Smells of thymes and honey bring about summer
The sky is getting pretty with the puffy clouds
Wish I could just fly up, soaring through the thunder
If only not in wartime, not during air raid sound.

Quiet inspiration, sunrise bathes in colors,
Smokey coffee aroma takes you to your dreams
New day slowly cuddles, crawls, and comes about
But this summer withers with the winter’s breeze

Clouds play around with sudden warm rainshowers
Bachelor’s button wildflowers bow into the wind
Slowly comes the sound of a sad guitarist
Someone’s soul is leaving on death’s bitter wings.

Tea with thymes hugs gently on an early morning
Quiet breath of summer rustles in the trees
Someone’s love forever will be mixed with mourning
Sweet remembrance comforts and brings about ease.

Smells of thymes and honey I bring to my summer,
Sorting through hope fragments buried in this ash
Why does rain taste salty, dropping from eye’s gutter?
What will come about in this autumn’s dash?