[Note from the editor: In “Inner Experiences During the War and Flowers of Peace” you will find six personal and often touching accounts from our dear friends and fellow seekers in Ukraine. The short stories came to my desk in the English language. I decided to keep the editing to a minimum in order to stay as close as possible to what the writers tried to convey.]
Lavender: Mesmerizing lavender which is the ultimate peace flower. These flowers tend to bring peace and accord. The pretty flowers also symbolize serenity and strength along with ease. Lavender is a perfect flower for peace
My Inner Experience During the War
Svitlana Gavrylenko - Ukraine
My inner experience of the first day of the war was and still is very important to me. Early in the morning, I received a phone call that informed me about the beginning of the war. I was still asleep, and thus my consciousness was still on the border of two states, sleep and wakefulness. And this, as is known, gives the opportunity to communicate with one's own unconscious. Well, I was not surprised. Somewhere on the far periphery of consciousness, there were thoughts like: "Isn't this a dream? How can this be?", but the conscious dominant thoughts were such as: "This is a natural consequence of decades and centuries of deliberately inciting a certain atmosphere of enmity. It is an abscess that has ripened and must now burst through so that healing can take place through exacerbation."