War and Peace

 As I was sitting outside the other day, enjoying the mild weather and fresh air, a military plane flew over our house at a low altitude.  It was loud and I could hear it approaching from quite a distance away.  It struck me how fortunate I am.  I can hear and see this plane fly over my home without fear that it's going to drop a bomb and destroy everything we have. While people in Ukraine are living out that terror every day.

I have been trying to keep up with what is going on in regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Man of the House will sometimes turn on one of the 24-hour news channels when he is home and let it play to catch all the stories and latest updates.  But sometimes it all just starts to feel like too much.

All of the images of homes being destroyed by Russian bombs.  The women and children, and the elderly - huddled in shelters or fleeing across the border into Poland to try to escape the brutality.  Families are being torn apart.  I start to feel hopeless.  There's an odd mix of anger and dispair.  And then the "what ifs" start to play in my mind.  That's when have to turn off the television and try to forget about it for a little while. 

Believe me, I know exactly how blessed I am to have that option.  The people actually living through this ordeal don't have that luxury.  I pray every single day for thier safety and for and end to the war.

History Repeats

I saw a post on Instagram the other day about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  It made a comment about being tired of living through historical circumstances.  Aren't we all? 

But you know what I'm really tired of?  RE-living historical circumstances. 

If there is one thing I've realized over the past couple of years - it's that we as humans have apparently haven't learned a darn thing in the past 100 years.  It became obvious right at the beginning of the Covid pandemic that we didn't learn any lessons from the Influenza pandemic of 100 years ago.  And now, here we are seeing a war that has more than subtle echoes of when Hitler invaded neighboring European countries under the guise of reclaiming lands that had once belonged to Germany.

I guess Winston Churchill was correct when he wrote that "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

It has been easy to get sucked into the 24-hour news cycle over the past few days as I try to stay informed about the latest developments in Ukraine.  But I have to drag myself away from it from time to time. Otherwise, I start feeling sad, angry, scared, and helpless all at the same time.  Especially when I see the women and children forced to flee their homes or sheltering in subways during the night. 

I guess it's a good thing that I have a long to do list and plenty of goals to help distract me from the rabbit hole of news channels this week. That and a whole lot of prayer.