I hate the fact that my reading The Beekeper from Aleppo has been timed this way and I hate that by accident I picked a photo that is yellow-bluish. Most of all I hate what is going on in Ukraine, my whole life I have been hoping I will be able to avoid seeing war up close in my life, now this seems a lot less likely. I feel no words are enough here. My brain cannot comprehend war and the human suffering it havocs, effectively for nothing. Putin will gain nothing, that was always clear, so why do hundreds of thousands of people have to suffer, flee and die only to prove what has been known all along?

What was true for Syria holds true for Ukraine and every other war, no political gain is worth such tragedy. None. Nothing is an excuse for it. It feels like I’m writing in cliches, so that’s why I wanted to just finish by saying I’m putting this blog on pause for now, so we can all focus on what’s important and consider how we can help.

I wish you all the best and hope you are all safe! We’ll see each other hopefully in better times.