Can’t travel? Walk your city as a tourist

We didn’t choose these places to be our homes by chance

War is a thief – it takes away lives, it takes away peace, it takes away many many things. Some things are big and obvious. The news outlets are better and more resourceful at showing and telling those stories. Other things are small and subtle. Only we who live here know what that loss feels like. It’s the things that make us say oh yes I miss that and I wish we could do that again.

One such small lost thing is travel.

Many people in Ukraine – men predominantly – can’t travel abroad, and can barely travel within the country. Two years and counting. In a myriad of bigger tragedies, the limits on movement might seem like a little trivial thing. Yet, as the saying goes – the devil is in the details. Little things enrich our lives and make it meaningful. When they fall from the picture, the canvas of our lives becomes dull and depressing.

Today, I went for a walk with depression and dullness by my side and tried to fight the devil with a small change of perception. I tried to look at Kyiv as if I were seeing it for the first time. Maybe doing such small mental exercises is how we survive the big war. Maybe the god is in the details too. I caffeinated my brain throughout the walk and somehow that caffeine high helped me to believe in this sweet little lie. Sometimes I relapsed, but many moments felt like new to me.