Living in the Strangest of Times

As many others have pointed out, a lot of us haven’t considered a Russian invasion and possibly WW3 in our February 2022 bingo, but here we are.

Ever since the news broke out, I wake up and attend to my morning rituals with my kids, wondering to myself if this day, today, will be our last peaceful day at home before tragedy comes for us. I’m sure there were a lot of young mothers in Ukraine, who once were in the highest of spirits, but are now completely blindsided by a breaking war, fleeing and leaving life as they’ve always known it. All well-laid plans and dreams, abandoned at an instant. People seriously confronting what may be their last day alive.

It breaks my heart if the time would come that it would be the same for me — if it was the last day that I would smile and laugh with glee along with my family without a care in the world. At the same time, however, there is also a weird comfort in knowing that if these days were indeed our last days, then I would have died in the happiest phase of life I’ve ever known, beloved by my husband and blessed with my impossibly adorable children. It feels oddly uplifting that at least I got to know pure love and joy during my time on Earth, and everything was not for naught.

Right now, I’m sitting at our balcony, basking in a sunny winter day with birds chirping and tractors whirring in the background. Does it even get more idyllic than this? Overhead, the peace is interrupted by military jets whishing by as they go about their drills.

Can these truly be our last peaceful days? If so, then I am so grateful to be in parental leave right now, devoting my time to dote on my children. If these are indeed the last days that we have, I would spend them no other way than to shower my husband and kids all the love and joy in the world that they deserve.