Today, after being closed since December 31, our Cafe is open south of Kyiv, serving our town with free coffee, tea and some snacks. Seeing our close friends rally to form a barista+cleaning team, serving our community, in the the context of all this uprooted-ness, brings many fresh emotions.
This weekend was hard. Hard to stop, breath and reflect. I know it’s important to face reality, feel your feelings.. but since this all began, it feels safer to work, stay busy, avoiding the deeper disillusionment within the soul, and felt within others. This morning I met with Aléksa Ayshpur and we stared at our ‘to-do’ list. It felt contrived, all good things, but what is necessary, now? We, after all, are as unsure of the present-future as much as those whom we are serving. It’s an odd, new sensation to be afraid to stop – but we know intrinsically it’s deep benefits.
Embracing limitations, fragility, letting go, all acts of trust – there’s some freedom and rest there, we feel it’s coming. Are we ready for a silent retreat? I think it’s time. Beginning to realize for this season, less is more, being present will be the challenge for so many moving forward, including myself. Otherwise, we are but shells of ourselves, shadows moving about serving shadows.
Thank you friends at Lighthouse Cafe – Ukraine – we miss you, we miss normal, serving in the same space, making jokes, dreaming. I pray it can be a place for being present, for friends and families to reconnect and find solidarity and hope. We are believing for the same open, welcoming spaces to emerge and awaken the soul here in Romania too.