It is hard to watch the news coming from Ukraine.
Once “the other side of the world” was used to dismiss any effect on us, but the world has shrunk, and now everything is interconnected.
We are seeing unbelievable devastation, the risk of a nuclear disaster, and a country fighting for its life. Women and children flee for safety, while sons, husbands and brothers stand against Russian forces. But, in contrast to the inhumanity, there is hope and help.

The world is holding its breath. We simply cannot think of our safe world being blown to bits, but it is no longer unimaginable. My parents have been on my mind all week, and I imagine them watching the news. What memories of WWII would be flooding back. Would my mother be remembering the German invasion of the Netherlands and the fear for her brother in the Dutch army? Would she be taken back to the terrible years of the Occupation?
After WWII, her brother had been certain there would be another war, and it would come from the Soviet Union. It was the reason he brought his family to Canada. Now Russia has invaded Ukraine.
For years my father, and many other veterans, never spoke of the war. Would they be able to watch the news and still keep the memories at bay. We have enjoyed a generation of relative peace, but they have passed on their horror of war.
I stand with Ukraine; I stand against war. We will feel the impact of this war, but the increased cost of goods and gasoline is a small price to pay when a country is being devastated and death tolls are rising. We will welcome displaced Ukrainians, and we will pray that war will not reach our land.

I still seek peace in the solitude of nature, but it is overlaid by shadows, and I see them differently as they reach toward me. Are they the dark fingers of war?