UKRAINE 🇺🇦

I am a news and politics junkie. I love nothing better than an energetic discussion about what’s going on in the world. Having said that I don’t share my political views (at least I hope I don’t) in this blog. Having said that I believe I must comment on what is happening in Ukraine.

I have been glued to the television watching as events unfold. The images of war, the bombings, the interviews of ordinary people who simply want to live their lives in peace with all their neighbors. And yes I understand Russia’s concerns about NATO being literally on their border. I watch several American news channels, I watch Sky News from the UK, I keep in touch with German and French pilgrim friends, and I stay connected to my cousin in Paris.

They are all highly concerned. As Americans we really have no concept of war on our land. Yes, the civil war was fought on American land which was littered with the bodies of American soldiers. My father fought in World War II, he was in un exploded bomb disposal. My mother was a French citizen trying to survive and live her life in the midst of chaos. The story that always sticks in my mind is how she got stuck at a friend’s apartment for a week because there was a sniper in the street.

My friends in Europe are beginning to understand the stories that their parents and grandparents told them about war. Not war someplace else. War right outside their front doors.

When I see the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag 🇺🇦 I cannot help but be reminded of the shells of the same colors that point the way along the camino. As difficult as it is to imagine this is a camino for Ukraine. This is a journey in which the Ukrainians are plumbing the depths of their hearts and souls to find the courage to endure and move forward in their lives. This camino will change the Ukrainian people. It will change Ukraine and Russia. It may even change all of us as we collectively watch this tragedy unravel.

Let us pray for all who are in the midst of a camino of war and suffering. Not just in Ukraine, all around our world.

Buen Camino