10 Years

It occurred to me yesterday that it has been 10 years since this journey began.  That is a l-o-n-g time.  Ukraine has become so much more to me than just a word on a page or computer screen, or a the outlines on a map. 

This is also in large part why the events of over a year ago have been troubling and have caused many tears, fears, and concerns.

There have been times when it was all-consuming, and other times when I've just looked away from the news because it was too much to handle, albeit from a distance.

I am hopeful that I'll have another opportunity to return to my adopted home, and I'm hopeful that one day I'll be able to return to Crimea, a place that is featured in this blog.

Until then...

I wish peace for this place that I love.

Stuff Happens

This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a seat
Take in one symphony now, we've just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waited hold it to you in the colored come another

Once More For Old Times Sake

Tonight I sit in an apartment, not far from my old apartment on Prospekt Mira in Nikolaev.

I ate some domashnee vareniki and am staring at a packet of paprika sauce as a baby would his mother's breast. 

I have no air conditioner, no washing machine, not even toilet paper.  I do, however, have wireless internet in the apartment. 

It's interesting to be back to visit.  It's been four years.  Things have changed, some things have not.  Buildings have gone up.  New shops stand where old ones used to be, and some seem to have made it. 

In four years I have changed.  I used to long for this place, for the sense of an adventure every day.  I think that I now yearn for stability and safety and comfort.  Sometimes I think that that makes me old.  Other times I think that that makes me smart.  I do feel though that it will likely be another four years, if not more before I make it back again.

So for tonight and the next few days, I will enjoy this visit, and I felt that a part of this visit was coming here and writing.  Please forgive the intrusion.

This Is It

Shut It Down

Pondering whether or not it's time to just put this to bed.  I love posting photos, but also wonder if there is just some other place where I can do this and in a more private manner.  For some time this has been for me, a tiny tiny outlet.  But if I am to be honest, it's not as much fun having something public if your only audience is spammy stuff from Russia.  It doesn't serve to make you believe that you are more connected at all. 

Perhaps it's time to let this sink into the abyss of countless other blogs or projects that served their purpose for a time, but now are no longer revelent or interesting.  Perhaps it never was!  But it was fun and serves as a document of sorts for a period of time in my life.

Thanks spammies for "stopping" by.

Closer than you Think

Unexpected