Planting Strawberries While the World Falls Apart

Sometimes it feels like the world is going mad.

You open the news and there is another conflict, another political fight, another story about violence or injustice somewhere in the world. Countries arguing with each other. Wars that don’t seem to end. Decisions that make you wonder if anyone is thinking about ordinary people at all.

Four years ago, I was in the middle of a war zone. It was the most terrifying period of my life. Trauma like that doesn’t just disappear when you move somewhere safer. It stays with you. It becomes part of how you see the world.

And when the news keeps showing more chaos, it’s hard not to feel like everything is slowly breaking.

Sometimes I genuinely wonder how anyone is supposed to stay mentally healthy in a world that feels this unstable.

The problem is that you can’t completely ignore the news either. You want to know what’s happening. You want to understand what might come next. It feels irresponsible to look away completely.

But constant exposure to all this darkness slowly eats away at your sense of safety.

So lately I’ve been trying something simpler.

I focus on small things.

I think about planting strawberries.

I think about building a small house for my ducks.

I try to plan my next ordinary day.

Step by step.

I take my medication. I go to work. I cook something simple. I water my plants. I try to stay present in the life that is actually happening around me.

There is no universal advice for surviving a difficult world. Everyone carries their own fears, their own history, their own limits.

But I think one thing might help a little: limiting how much chaos we let into our minds every day.

The world may be loud and frightening.

But life still continues in small, quiet moments.

Planting strawberries.

Taking care of animals.

Living one ordinary day after another.

And sometimes that is the only way to keep going through an imperfect week.