Up&Up
It comes as no surprise that war unites the people involved in it in a cruel way. Common ground is found through the pain they carry, and maybe it doesn’t alleviate the pain, but it makes it somewhat easier to maintain.
I would describe it as inhumane if I did not believe that it is human nature to create chaos and dwell in evil.
During the first few days of the war, stores remained functioning and opened themselves up to the people. That was before the tanks started to directly bomb the facilities.
Most cities and significant infrastructure shut down after that, only opening up in areas where the battles were driven out (like Kyiv).
After the most significant source of supplies was cut off (an ongoing issue in many cities), the people turned to each other for help.
People collectively relied on outside support while surviving constant invasions and attacks by supporting and strengthening others through homegrown crops, the previous years’ harvests, and canned goods.
Being lucky enough to gather a small abundance of food from across Europe, we got to work on packing bags to give out.
Our church in Brovary recently welcomed several families fleeing from other regions of Ukraine.
One of which fled their home through the back door just seconds before bullets rained down upon it. Their house was briefly occupied as a Russian command center, used for shooting civilians and soldiers down.
The soldiers inevitably burned it down, leaving only fragments of the front walls standing.
Another family had evacuated when news of the war reached them and returned months later to their neighboring homes burned to the ground, with only their house intact but missing all of the windows due to explosions and heavy shelling.
Putting each object of food into the bags left an odd feeling, like being standstill in a moment of quiet observation.
It was a gentle sadness, though not one that makes you feel helpless.
It left behind a particular stubborn impression of hope. And maybe to some people, that’s dangerous, but without hope, no picture of a better future can be formed.
Without stubborn hope, one can only be stuck in that standstill of quiet observation with no progress, no change, and nothing better than the problems that made them stuck in the first place.
All one needs is hope and patience. Hope that it will get better, and patience to hold on until it does.
