The pandemic rolls on and we adjust the best we can.
I wrote a blog entry around the above sentence and tossed it.
Blah blah blah.
What really matters is the war in Ukraine.
One month.
The resilience and hearts of the Ukrainian adults, children, dogs and cats is overwhelming.
Their fragility and strength is poignant. I am awed and intimidated.
I want to look away but don’t.
People have come from all over the world to help Ukraine and Ukrainians. They left their lives and put themselves at risk. Danger is omnipresent. They see, fear, face and ignore it. Their work comes first.
I want to look away but don’t.
I respect the impact to the country, the cities, the people, their animals, their gardens, their hospitals, their homes and the outdoor areas where they used to gather. I worry about the wild places – protected areas and National parks and the wildlife that called those areas home.
The devastation is shocking. I am horrified and overwhelmed.
I want to look away but don’t.
I must witness the devastation and feel grief and loss.
I must be compassionate and help in any way I can.
Standing in solidarity, no matter what that looks like, is a step.
Saying prayers, remaining informed, holding all of them in my mind as I meditate, are other steps.
There is no expected end date to this. Suffering and loss and death and devastation will continue. And so will love, family, hope, compassion, empathy, assistance, meals, dogs wagging their tails and cats sleeping next to their humans.
I don’t know how to end this entry.
Until I decide what else I can do to help, I am aware and stand in solidarity.
I will not look away.
Karen compiled the following after her exploration of Ukraine’s ecosystems and the effects of the war. Karen approaches environmental concerns from a broad view and writes for all persons of all backgrounds. Her views have been influence by experiences of non-US cultures and US and world natural beauty and wildlife.
Ukraine has six terrestrial (land) ecoregions: Central European mixed forests, Crimean Submediterrean forest complex, East European forest steppe, Pannonian mixed forests, Carpathian montane conifer forests, Pontic steppe. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org
Ukraine has four flora zones: Mediterranean, steppe, forest steppe and forest.
Source: https://ukraine.com
These ecosystems and the flora and fauna that inhabit them don’t conceptualize boundaries created by human-declared ownership of land.
Nature thrives with adequate sunlight, elements, precipitation and resources. These resources provide nutritional, physical, habitat, safety, reproduction, migration, ancestral and other needs.
Looking at war from the perspective of a red deer, wolf, field mouse, lynx, pelican or wood grouse, war destroys the ability to live. Habitat is gone, the noise is foreign and terrifying and there’s no food. Some animals can escape.
War changes substrate - soil, sand, gravel and whatever material plants grow in. Plants, shrubs and trees can’t run away, but they can move via seed dispersion.
These changes vary due to many factors. These changes can affect environment and people in other nations. Wind currents and water movement can deliver materials to unexpected locations.
All attempts to write a conclusion for the above five paragraphs failed.
Sometimes, events are so complicated, so layered, so wrong that words (and correct grammar) disappear. Thinking splats against a thick black wall. Five competing emotions flood. There is nothing.