Solidarity

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context. -- Margaret Wheatley

In the early part of the 20th century, my mother's parents were forced out of their home and off their farmland in Slovakia by either the ‎Czechs or the Hungarians.

I think of this as I watch what's unfolding in Ukraine.

I know that our own country's"involvement" in some areas of the world has also led to mass emigration and worse.

This, as none of our blog posts, is meant to be political.

However, besides compassion and prayers for the Ukrainian people, there is a lot we can learn.

In 2005, to honor the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, Meg Wheatley penned a poem that began with these stirring lines:

When I come of age

When I get over being a teen-ager

When I take my life seriously

When I grow up

I want to be a Ukrainian.

“Hope,” said Václev Havel, “is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing regardless of how it turns out.”

I will teach you all that I have learned

The strength of fearlessness

The peace of conviction

The strange source of hope.