Lyudmyla left Ukraine a month after the war began – first Bulgaria, then Belgium. Later came Madeira, and the island became a second home.
In Belgium, medicine didn’t help. So she went into the forest and began gathering herbs – plantain, calendula, sage, birch buds. Things she had known since childhood and forgotten through years of city life. She brewed them, treated her children and herself – and understood she was returning to something that had always been hers.
“WHEN YOU ARE CLOSE TO NATURE — YOU FEEL LIKE A CREATOR. YOU FEEL GOD WITHIN YOURSELF.”
Now, when she meditates in Belgium, she always returns to Madeira – a mountain, the sun rising behind it, and the ocean below. Sometimes the feeling of being above the clouds, in the middle of the sky. That image holds her.
When she lands on the island and breathes in the air (flowers, ocean, mountains), she says: I’m going home.
“Every time you look – everything is new, new and beautiful. I can never get enough of it.”
Project: Healing Land.Voices Voice: Lyudmyla Location: Madeira, Portugal / Belgium
