“Unfortunately, it is in human nature to allow evil to mature, to stand up against humanity. It then destroys and kills. It launches aggression and breaks people’s lives. You and us have already fought together against such great evil. You and us already have the experience of defeating the evil that is generated by human nature. I’m not saying there will be no more wars after the war ends. No. It is impossible to completely erase evil from human nature. Yet it is within our power to guarantee with words and deeds that the light side of human nature will prevail” (Zelensky’s address to the British Parliament, February 8, 2023).

If I were Zelensky, this is what I imagine I would say…

I see you.

The light in your eyes.

Your soul knows rest.

You have no fear.

You wear compassion for my country like a flag and embrace us with open arms and kind words.

I thank you for that.

Now, if you would but listen…

Do you know what one of the precursors is for deadly genocidal violence? Hate-filled conspiracy theories.

Hitler copied this same conspiracy from anti-Jewish propaganda and brought its lies to life in his imagination.

QAnon is Nazism resurfaced.

When we will learn?

This is Woman. She is a powerful force who stands face-to-face with Man. Have you met her? Have you stared her in the eyes and asked her about her story?

We’ve never heard the other side of the story—how people were forced to choose between following Hitler or death. How when any one of us under duress is faced with the same question, our natural instinct is to choose life. How the Russians invaded East Germany in tanks, plowing, raping and pillaging as they went. How my husband’s grandmother and aunt fled for their lives in the wake of Russian occupation.

Rest doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means giving your heart permission to choose how and when to do all that is required of you. It’s the difference between ‘I have to,’ and ‘I want to.’

The poetic words of Lord Byron, “Oh Rome! City of the soul!” can only be felt when you witness the City of Light for yourself. It grabs onto your soul to rest there, like it is infusing magic to keep you believing that true love does exist and fairy tales do come true, as they have for me…

Hold on to your dreams and believe in them, however outlandish they seem. Perhaps the series of disappointments that took you there were just protection from wandering on the wrong path.

Love changes things. What was I so afraid of? I did not understand that love fulfills the long-lost wishes, the secret hopes, the deep fantasies of desire... If it’s true love, it does not leave you lacking. Where love was lost in childhood, where adulthood failed to meet expectations, where emotional heartache left a gaping chasm of need—love fulfills.

Do not fear the unknown. Do not fear what the West calls them—the refugees—or assume that all refugees from Muslim regions of the world are violent rapists and terrorists. They are families—mothers, fathers, children. They are you, they are me, inhabiting the same home as all of us.