The earth is my life, my work, my strength. But in recent years, it has also become my pain.

I am a farmer. And if before my biggest concern was to manage to harvest before the rains or find a good market, now the main thought that does not leave me for a minute is how to survive.

How to preserve what we got from our parents, what we grew with our own hands, how to protect the bread when shelling can thunder at any moment.

Every day begins with a prayer not only for myself, but also for the fields, for the animals, for those who are nearby.
I live in Ukraine, and the war has deprived us of a sense of stability. You go to work in the field, and rockets are buzzing above you.
You feed the cattle, and explosions can be heard several kilometers away.

Sometimes all your care for the land turns into a fight against chaos.

It is very hard to see how warehouses are destroyed, how the harvest burns, how mines remain in the fields where wheat grew yesterday.

It is difficult to describe in words the feeling when your labor - months of work, sleepless nights, hard days under the scorching sun - turns to ashes in a matter of minutes.

But do you know what the hardest thing is?

It is not fatigue. Farmers are used to fatigue.
The worst thing is powerlessness.

When you cannot protect what you love.

When you look at animals and understand that there is not always something to feed them with.
When it gets cold in the house, and there is not enough firewood or fuel. When you hear the stories of neighbors who have lost everything... and still move on.

I believe that the earth remembers our every touch.
It feels our tears and pain, as well as joy and hope. And that is why I continue to work.
Because the earth is not only about the harvest. It is about life. About the future that we are all waiting for.

Many people do not understand at what price Ukrainian bread is obtained today.
Behind every grain are the fates of people.
Behind every loaf is the life of farmers who risk every day.
We hold on not because it is easy, but because there is no other way. Because the earth calls, and it will not forgive betrayal.

It is hard for me, I get tired, there are days when my hands drop, and it seems that there is no strength.
But then I go out into the field, I see the shoots, I see the life that makes its way even through the war and I understand that we must hold on.

Because while the grain grows, while the lark sings over the field, while the earth is alive, Ukraine is alive. ❤️