Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 521):

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Psalm 71:1-2

We may be unaware of it, but many of our decisions may be affected by the trauma we have encountered. My grandma, who lived through the famine (even though in its mild form because she lived in the south of Ukraine) and WWII, used to stock up on supplies. I remember her having a lot of soap, boxes of detergent, and bags of salt put away in her apartment “just in case.” I am the same way. If possible, I stock up on imperishable goods to be ready when the bad times come. Did you catch it? Not “if the bad times come,” but “when the bad times come.”

Ukraine has been through much turbulence even in the past hundred years, so our people have these different traumas layered one upon another and passed from one generation to another. It is not done intentionally, but that’s the course of things.

This war we are living in now will become another significant traumatic event that will have its effect on people decades after it is over. I read someone say that now, we learn to build homes, clearly understanding that they may be destroyed, and we give birth to children, painfully aware that their life may be cut short at any moment, yet we must learn to keep on living. This trauma from lack of security runs so deep that it will keep haunting us until we feel safe again, until we know that Russia can no longer start another war on Ukraine, on our children and grandchildren.

In one training, I heard that only something talked through can be put to rest. That is why it is so crucial for us now to remember and to tell the world about the Holodomor (the artificial famine of 1932-1933), the Executed Renaissance (the generation of Ukrainian language poets, writers, and artists who were persecuted and executed during Stalin’s Great Terror), the years of oppression in the Soviet Union, Russia’s treachery after Ukraine gained its independence, and about this present war. When we talk about this, it is not an appeal to see us as victims. It is our attempt to bring our trauma into the light, to be seen and heard, and to start healing.

May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
Psalm 71:13-16