Ukraine is much on my mind, Friends. I know there is war going on somewhere in the world almost every day, and the internet and cell phone access bring it so close. It’s easy to become numb to it all.

Why should we get so upset over Ukraine when civil war continues in Ethiopia, and battles are still fought in the Middle-East, and China is still imprisioning Muslim citizens in camps, and refugees are still limping across many borders and swimming in many seas?

Maybe because we Euro-Americans see people who look like us? Maybe because there are uncomfortable similarities to the circumstances and players of the previous world wars? Maybe because there are large nuclear arsenals at hand?

Sting’s song keeps echoing in my head: “I hope the Russians love their children, too!”

Of course they do. And so do the Ukrainains. And so do we and all parents. And no matter who gives the orders and who fires the weapons, it is always the children, and the elders, and the sick and disabled, the poorest and the vulnerable who suffer and die the most.

Feeling anxious? Helpless? Heartbroken? You’re in good company, Friends.

In wisdom and grace,

Rev. Ruth