948 day of war

Hello, friends!

This week there was a lot of air alert . The hardest-hit areas are the front-line cities such as Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy. Many of my acquaintances have settled in these cities after the war began, and I try to periodically get in touch with them to check how they're doing. The longer the war drags on, the worse they feel. Guided aerial bombs are a terrifying weapon, and when they hit every day, it really takes a toll on people's spirits. It’s so hard, I understand how they feel, but I can’t do anything to help.

We also followed Zelensky’s visit to the U.S. and the presentation of his peace plan. It seems like peace is exactly what we need, that the president has a plan for achieving it. But there's no sense of uplift at all. I think it’s because last year, when the counteroffensive was underway, we were promised that the end was near and everything would change, but nothing really happened. Just like the talks at the beginning of the war, saying it would end in 2-3 weeks, and by the summer, we'd be relaxing on the beaches in Crimea. It sounds funny now, but we truly believed it. Now, we don’t want to indulge in false hopes and be disappointed later.

I still do not fully understand what this peace plan is about, since they have not yet shared it with the Ukrainian public, and I am quite skeptical about it. But the country was allocated significant defense support - the largest since the beginning of the war, maybe this means that everything is going well and we will not be surrendered.

Meanwhile, I’ve started feeling much better, just like last year, when my autumn blues passed in about a month. I think I handled it well this time by channeling my depressive thoughts into work, which allowed me to make a lot of great T-shirts and make significant progress on new designs. I managed to return the long sleeves that weren’t dyed to the store and found others. I ordered one for testing and am eagerly waiting for it.

The photo shows a new cat that comes to our morning feeding. At first, he was very shy and wouldn’t come close, but now he even lets us pet him.
It seems to have already become a part of life. For the third year now, we wake up early every day, grab the cat food, and go out to find the cats. These morning walks give us good emotions and help make the day productive, especially on Sundays when everyone is still asleep, and the streets are almost empty — it’s just us and the cats.

Thank you for your support, it is very inspiring to not give up and keep going. Also, thanks for the help on buymeacoffee!