Tag: Strength

Fresh wounds on the white canvas

It was so hard to lose everything at once that my heart broke apart with pain. The sounds of explosions were coming from every direction, and I could not pull my thoughts together.

The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds

Azovstal is well-known not only in Ukraine. This steel plant is almost ninety years old. For ninety countries across the world, it has been a top producer of steel, mainly exported to Europe.

People Are Coming Back

People Are Coming Back

People are coming back to their villages and towns. They return home, even though they often no longer have one. Their homes turned into skeletons.

Land

Land

This is our land. The land into which you grow roots — knee-deep, waist-deep, shoulder-deep. The land where you stand your ground and which you will never leave.

The Land Hugs Us

The Land Hugs Us

This land, it is embodied in voices. It’s embodied in bodies, souls, and eyes wet from rain and tears. In the steps you take, measuring the space you will never give away.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread

In Western Ukraine, we are Greek Catholics, and we are very religious. Every Sunday, every church in Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Volyn regions is packed with believers for a morning mass.

The Ukrainian Sacrifice and Cucumbers

Recently I have taken a habit of starting my morning by reading a random paragraph from the legendary book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves, and reflecting on it during the day.

Fugue of Life

“I don’t really like it when someone recites my poems,” says one of the poets invited to the talk. “But when I wrote a poem about the war and saw a girl reciting it and loading her machine gun, it was rather impressive.”
The poem kept repeating: “Speak to me, speak to me…”

Appeal from the Boy in the Photo

This post is an appeal to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But it’s not mine — it is from the boy in this photo. I promised him to publish it.