This past summer, we were on a family beach vacation when the Taliban overtook Afghanistan. I wrote about the tension of it all. Of relishing that time with my family while simultaneously mourning the devastation taking place across the globe.

This past week, I dressed my children in funny hats, or as twins, or wacky for Wednesday. And at the same time, on the other side of the globe, mothers clung to terrified children and schools were destroyed.

I can’t put my finger on it, but the juxtaposition of my children dressed in these ridiculous outfits with something so devastating happening simultaneously struck me. I’m still chewing on what it all means.

We hear the news.
We mourn.
And yet we keep going.
We make the dinners and wash the clothes.
We see the clips of devastation and wonder what we can do to help.
Wonder what we would do if it were us.
We are sad, and yet we are also happy.
Life feels hard, and at the same time easy.
We pray.
We are in want, and yet have everything we need.
We watch the news.
We watch the Bachelor.
We find the funny hat and silly socks.
Somehow this all coexists.

I have no solid answers for you. I know this is what we are all dealing with. It’s a tension we are all holding. And you do not need to know how to feel or how to respond. You were not made for this level of intake.

Tomorrow, I am committing to two things outside of our normal everyday:
I will research an organization actively helping Ukraine and I will donate to it.
I will set a timer for 3 minutes and pray for the people there.

To be clear: Doing this does not make me a better person. I will have hours where I forget about the people of Ukraine completely. Moments in my safe and easy life where I find a reason to complain. But for me, it’s a tangible action step.

You do not have to join me, but if you wish to, I will share the organization I research tomorrow in stories and we will stop to pray at 11am.