Hello, my name is Natalia. I am 43 years old and I live in Kyiv. Today, I want to share with you a piece of my soul — my story of healing, strength, and the search for true love after experiencing domestic violence. I also want to tell you how I found strength in motherhood, self-love, and faith in a better future. ✨👩‍👦💪

Why love is not an accident, but a conscious choice and labor.

Reflections on the fear of opening up and being real in relationships.

About why summer is not only a season, but also a state of mind.

As children, it seems that there is an infinite amount of time. We spend hours playing, we don’t leave the house for days, we don’t answer someone’s letters for weeks. Then we grow up and begin to understand how valuable time is. Not because there is less of it, but because we have become more aware of how quickly it goes by.

Sometimes, people appear in our lives with whom a special connection immediately arises. Not necessarily a love connection - it could be a friend, a colleague, even a random fellow traveler. It seems that you are completely different, but something inside responds. As if you have known each other for a long time.

Sometimes it seems that only big events change our lives: moving, a new job, love, loss. But the older you get, the more you understand that real magic is in the little things. Morning coffee, brewed by someone with care. A message from an old friend. A ray of sunshine on the windowsill. A song you haven’t heard in a long time. A random smile from a stranger.

I was always sure that love was about chemistry, chance, and fate. But over time, as life became more dynamic and everyday life more intense, I increasingly heard from friends: "Sign up for a dating site, everyone is finding each other like that now!" And I thought - why not?

Sometimes you just want to hide. Hide in a cozy, familiar, safe world: among your favorite books, proven routes, people who don't ask unnecessary questions. In your "wood corner" - warm and quiet.

We are so often taught to move forward, to fight, to hold on, not to let go. Meanwhile, true love is not always about "holding on until the last". Sometimes it is about taking a step back. Or maybe two. Or ten.

We love to divide everything into “useful” and “useless”, “beautiful” and “unnecessary”. And then they appear in the garden - weeds. Persistent, tenacious, not according to plan. They are immediately pulled out, without even looking at them.

Honestly, have you ever tried to hold a balloon in your hand and be sad? It doesn't work! Even the most serious adult with a wrinkle between their eyebrows starts to smile involuntarily, as soon as you take this round, colorful symbol of simple happiness in your hand.

You must admit that rivers do not run in panic. They flow. Sometimes - violently, sometimes - lazily, but always with confidence. Confidence that their path is to the sea. And no one rushes them, does not pull them, does not demand the result of "yesterday". They just move, knowing that they will get there.

Do you know such people? Those who ask: "Have you eaten?", even if you were just passing by. Who is the first to hear fatigue in your voice, when you haven't yet admitted to yourself that you are at your limit. Who will think about you at night, worry, fret, and then, in the morning, write one short: "How are you?"

You know, sometimes life pauses, and suddenly everything around seems louder, deeper, more significant. Today I saw a scene that I probably wouldn't even notice in the usual hustle and bustle.🤗

So tell me — do you like girls who timidly wait for your first step? Or those who take a step forward themselves?.. 💃🏼

Summer is wonderful: sun, light clothes, evening walks... But when the temperature outside starts to resemble an oven, joy quickly gives way to the desire to hide in the refrigerator. Yes, the heat can exhaust you. But we have our own little tricks on how to survive it with a smile and not melt across the sofa like ice cream 🍦

You know, today I was sitting by the window with a cup of coffee and suddenly caught myself thinking: is it possible to really find love in this huge digital world?

Sometimes I think that in each of us there lives something... a little indecent. Well, not in the sense of going to extremes or losing one's head - but just a tiny idea, as if accidentally rolled under the bed of the soul. And you seem to have forgotten about it, and then - hop! - it peeks out at the most unexpected moment. Warm, seductive, contradictory.

And here I am, sitting, thinking... What does "ex" even mean for a man?