This one has been hard for me to write about.
I went into the bank last Wednesday and ended up standing in line a lot longer than planned. So, I dropped my things to the floor, sat on the floor, and started meditating right there on the spot. About 40 minutes later, a woman walked up to the windows, saw me, and laughed, “What are you doing? The floor is filthy.”
I shrugged and smiled, and she asked me what I was there for. I told her I needed to review my car payment, make a payment, and withdraw funds… which I couldn’t do until I saw how much my car payment would be for.
She introduced herself as a loan manager and invited me back to her office.
We reviewed my accounts, and she mentioned business loans.
I asked her about business loans, and she asked me about my business.
I told her about The Healing Garden and she, like so many people who hear about my work, lowered her voice in the same tone people do when they prepare to share their trauma with me. Then she said, “I just escaped from Ukraine.”
My blood went cold. I felt myself shift into the listener role and my heart filled with empathy and gentleness for her.
“How long ago?”
“Seven days.”
“Who did you leave behind?”
“No one,” she said. “I am the only one left.”
I gave her my condolences and asked her how she was. She explained her life in Ukraine. How she lived on the border of Russia where people from both sides were friends and family. How it was common to cross the border for events, gatherings, holidays, and celebrations… and how now, those same people who she had called “friend” a year ago had killed her family.
She told me how they used their cell phones every night to check in with each other and do a roll call to see who still lived.
How the silence from receiving no text filled her with dread, and how she waited for someone to answer. How she watched night after night, the replies from kin and loved ones become fewer and fewer until she was the last one.
She didn’t cry. She was still in shock.
She was brought here to the States, given a job here almost immediately that was similar to the job she had in Ukraine.
She told me how they took her in when she got here and the therapists gave her a trauma crash course in acceptance and grief then sent her on her way.
“It helps a lot,” she assured me. “What they told me. It helps a lot.”
She told me about how much she appreciates the United States, but it isn’t home. Home is under fire. And the true anxiety was never knowing if or when she would ever get to go home again.
Words cannot begin to explain… All I can do is pass on this story to you. It’s important that we know. That we all know.
During this interview, I made the decision that I will be offering any and all of my services from The Healing Garden to Ukraine free of charge. If you or someone you know is a refugee from Ukraine, I am your servant.
More information coming soon on Healing Ukraine