I have been riveted and appalled by the invasion of Ukraine by its neighbor Russia. What’s more, I actually know someone reporting on the ground over there, a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor… The bravery of the people and of President Zelenskyy is astounding. It is such a tragic situation.

My own grandparents were appalled when Russian troops marched into Prague in 1968 during the Prague Spring. They lived their lives as refugees in exile, never able to return to Czechoslovakia after the Second World War and the “Iron Curtain,” and I always knew them as “Oma” and “Opa.” However, since I had moved to Ireland as a young child, and my parents subsequently divorced, I never got to speak to my grandmother about her past before her death in 1976.

So I do have some Eastern European blood, about 13% according to Ancestry… My grandfather’s family actually came from Slovakia, which is even closer to Ukraine.

Whether it’s in the blood or not, I’m sickened by injustice and bullying. And I know how long oppressive regimes can last.

I had never really heard a nightingale’s song before. Here it is. I hope you enjoy it. (And while beautiful, it is actually quite fierce!)