Friday reflection

"I was trying so hard to find myself."

Earlier this week, a headline in the Washington Post arrested my attention:

She visited Ukraine to reconnect with her dad. Now she’s deploying aid.

The story is truly beautiful and well worth a read. In a nutshell, 37-year-old Zhanna Galeyeva was born in Ukraine, and spent her childhood dying to get away, which she ultimately did, becoming a U.S. citizen in 2012. Living in New York City, where she worked in the fashion industry, she was haunted by a constant ache of emptiness, until she decided late last year to travel home to see her father, whom she hadn’t seen since her parents divorced more than 30 years ago.

I’ll leave the rest of the story to the article itself, but suffice to say it is a beautiful meditation on finding meaning in life, trusting your instincts, and the idea of home. It’s also a story unlike any other I’ve heard coming from the Ukraine — a reminder that war, like all of life, is never captured in a single narrative, and that we can find meaning in service.

Quote

“I was trying so hard to find myself, and deep inside, I knew I had a greater reason for being. I didn’t know where to find that purpose, but I know now that it’s at home — in Ukraine.”

- Zhanna Galeyeva

Question

• How do you relate to the place you’re from?

• How does the story you tell yourself about that place, relate to the story you tell yourself about who you are?

• Is there a part of you that only the people from your earliest childhood know or understand?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and week ahead.

And, via the Washington Post: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.