The coffee is good - taste, strength, aroma, warm, and it cleanses the mouth, enters the throat and goes down smoothly. It is exactly as it should be for the first cup of the day.

Today it is one year exactly, since Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and things are better there now than they were; for so very long I worried that they would be defeated while the world stood by, but I no longer feel that way. They will persevere and win out over the Russians and while rebuilding will take a great deal of time, the lives of those lost will prove to not have been in vain. That, to me, is the hard part - wrapping my mind around how the world could have stood by, as it were, while Putin killed tens of thousands of Ukranian people - how could ANYone just let such a thing happen!?

Now there are two things in this world that I will forever wonder about slavery and the Civil War in the 1860s, and the invasion and killing by Russia of Ukraine. The devastation of the buildings alone, in Ukraine, hurt my mind when I see the photographs.

Thankfully, the average Ukrainian, like the fighter who gets knocked down in the ring, shakes his or her head, and gets back up to face the attack once more, and is stronger for that experience.

It is sort of funny, as I am here, in America, and have no real ties to Ukraine, but I have followed the happenings there every day, every step of the way, since 24 February 2002, and have been angered and fearful and joyful. by turns, with all that has happened, from the bombed-out buildings to the dead in the streets to the meetings of members of the Western allies... I have followed the information available with more than just curiosity, wishing that I could somehow will goodness to happen in Ukraine. Daily I look to the various news agencies for some indication that Putin is dead or very close to death - wanting to see just one more death, a very important death, to me, even though it may be wrong to wish death on anyone - I make the exception in his case.

But I sit here, at my computer, safe here in America, and the coffee is good.

being a Vietnam Veteran, I am fairly certain that my thoughts are not alone, concerning the situation in Ukraine.