Almost three weeks into the war — it hurts as bad, but somehow I’m optimistic

I’m wary of talking about my “hurt”. It ain’t hurt, when I’m thousands of miles away, when life is all as usual for my family. I rushed to get my Mom of collapsing Russia, but she and I discussed how our stress is nothing compared to what our relatives in Ukraine are experiencing, to the suffering of the millions of women and children forever displaced from their homes.

Still, the sense of shock over Russia’s war on Ukraine would not subside.