Last week Sunday I had a cool adventure with the Bunster. We went for a joy ride on a Bolt eScooter and it was just brilliant. We had tried this quite a few times over the past year and we never got more than a meter or two, but last weekend things just clicked into place and Bun and me were burning rubber through the city of Wroclaw. It is a very pretty city and it is flat, so you see lots of bicycles everywhere. eScooters on bicycle lanes are the business. Bun and I will do this again very soon for sure.

That adventure with Bun helped me to forget about all my problems. I was just hanging on to the handle bars, making sure Bun was safe and that he was not going to fall off. The wind was blowing in our hair and I could see that the Bunster was just loving every minute of it. We must have been on that eScooter for 20 minutes in total and yet it felt like just a few seconds. That is relativity and that is love.

Speaking of problems, the war in Ukraine is raging on, and things are not sounding good. I will be back in Kyiv next month and will see friends and colleagues and will get a better feel for things then. On my last visit home to Kyiv, which was not so long ago, the new mobilization laws were about to be passed, and now that these new laws are in place there is an additional level of stress and trauma that is haunting all men under the age of 60. And it is causing havoc with families.

Everyone I know in Kyiv loves their country and all of them want Ukraine to win the war and they all want to help. But not everyone wants to be a soldier. It is heartbreaking, and I feel helpless about the situation. God knows when this insane war will end and what will happen. I believe Ukraine will win the war, but the price everyone is paying just keeps on rising.

Everyone has problems. But the trauma of a war is not something I ever thought I would ever experience. I learned so much about life since the start of this full scale war. I have learned so much about myself. Everyone I know in Kyiv has changed. I have changed. I hope that when the war is over that some of these changes remain. I don’t wish this trauma and pain on anyone, but there are good things that are a result of this struggle. We all appreciate things that we used to take for granted. Family is the most important thing, and health too. And when it comes to friends, we may be friendly with many people, but true friends are rare. A person is lucky if they have a handful of real friends.

The Bunster has some cool buddies. I love the innocence of the 3 and 4 year olds in Bun’s kindergarten. I love the way they play together in the late afternoons, when kindergarten is finished for the day, and everyone gathers at the one playground across the way.

If you ask any parent if their kid is special the chances are they will confidently say “Yes”. And that’s the thing. All kids are special. So the question I would like to leave you with today : with all these special kids in the world where do so many ordinary adults come from … ?

Yesterday Marta went to a birthday party of a friend of Bunster from kindergarten. I wish I had been there. I like that friend of Bun’s, and he has cool parents. Marta was very excited by that birthday party and wrote some inspiring text. I am sharing it here.

Yesterday my son and I went to the birthday party of his friend Braxtyn. It was a busy, noisy, fun. A perfect party for a little boy! We enjoyed it so much! But there’s a story that I have to tell. A story about kindness.

My son is scared of heights and usually he doesn’t like to climb to the top of the jungle gym. Once the whole crowd of kids gathered they joined my son on a more safe attraction. And instead of running away and leaving him behind they showed empathy to their friend. They could have gone to climb the bigger structures but they stuck with the Bunster. No pressure from parents, nothing. Just genuine compassion, love. It lasted maybe 90 seconds and my son felt comfortable enough to climb higher.

Conclusions:

1. Thank you moms and dads for raising such amazing kids. I believe children learn by watching the best examples from their families.
2. Helping others with an open heart and not judging is a beautiful thing. I wish I had that more in my life.
3. Encouragement is more powerful than punishment or criticism.
4. Love kids’ birthdays with all my heart.

It is Friday, and another blur of a week comes to a close. I hope these few funny things make you smile. But what is not so funny is the lack of values in the world today. Money seems to be the only true religion. And greed is the explanation. So many companies continue to do business in Russia and that is not funny.

https://leave-russia.org/