The sky is the bluest of blue, and the sun is the yellowest of yellow.

It’s morning, and the Ukrainian flag flies over my head.

Today feels special.

I sit inside a coffee/book shop called “Sense”. Here, books are everywhere: in the front, at the back, on the right and on the left. These books are not just books. They’re symbols. These books are the primary evidence of the Ukrainian culture — it exists despite the numerous attempts at being abolished.

Right now, I’m surrounded by the proof that Ukrainian culture, indeed, exists, that it flourishes, and that it is blooming with hundreds and hundreds of books. Fiction, non-fiction, translations and original Ukrainian novels — the coffee shop is crowded with shiny covers of modern Ukrainian literature.

Some visitors carry a vyshyvanka on their chests, others are wearing regular t-shirts. It doesn't matter. What matters is that we all have Ukrainian books to read and Ukrainian books to share with the rest of the world.

Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day, and six months since Russia invaded this country. I had no plans to spend a certain portion of my life at war, but it so happens that that’s what I do these days.

I’m waring.

I’m waring — together with Ukraine — for the right to be free and independent.

Today, we’re expected to stay at home, in fear of yet another brutal Russian attack on Ukrainian independence. Instead, we’re drinking coffee and reading books right in the centre of the Ukrainian capital, in a place called “Sense” — this way we’re protesting against fate so atrociously imposed on us by someone who had no right to do so.

Ukrainians rarely do what they’re expected to — they defy expectations. Instead of fearing, they’re cheering.
Instead of crying, they’re singing.
Instead of dying, they’re living.

I don’t know how many more days we’ll have to spend fighting for freedom — maybe it’s a forever fight?

Maybe freedom is a journey and not a destination.

The journey of writing your book and sharing your story. The journey of making your film. The journey of composing your song. The journey of painting your picture. The journey of speaking your language. It’s the journey of finding and being yourself.

Ukrainians have been on the journey of finding themselves for too long — fighting against voices that wanted them to be something else, something less than that — today the journey is reaching an important milestone.

Ukrainians are finally earning the right to be Ukrainians — on their own terms and conditions.

under fire, the sunflower blooms
it roots from Kyivan Rus'
it stems into Kyivan Future
under rockets, it holds
under bombs, it scatters
seeds across the land that it owns
from them, more sunflowers will come
when the fire is gone — under the sun they will grow.