War experience conclusion - peace is the greatest value

I am 34 years old and I have experienced two wars. The first war happened when I was 4 years old. It was a war in which the state where I lived disintegrated into several smaller states, but unfortunately that disintegration did not pass without conflict and this resulted in my relocation to the territory where I belonged by the nationality of my parents. The second war happened when I was 11 years old. I remember that war by one name, and that is bombing, an air attack. You'd think my childhood was very stressful, but actually it's not.

When you are a child you do not have the same view of everything that happens around you as when you are an adult. The bombing was fun for me as a kid. You hide in shelters that are deep under the buildings, much deeper than the regular basement, and you feel like you’ve stepped into your favorite cartoon. You expect that everything around you will start to crumble and that you will run around the ruins and run away from the fire. It seems pretty exciting. But it's not really like that. It is exciting only in the eyes of a child.

When you experience something like this in your childhood, you grow up fast. You begin to realize that something bad is happening, even though it was fun for you at first. You begin to understand how you can't go wherever you want and whenever you want. You look at a mom who is under stress because she is alone and you know that dad is somewhere where he may be in danger. You start to be overwhelmed by too strong and serious thoughts for a child. Suddenly it's not fun anymore and you want this to end as soon as possible.

I remember the bombing by the sound of a warning danger siren. It was a very disturbing and loud sound, loud enough for the whole city to hear. When you hear that sound, you have to go to a safe place that is not considered to be the target of an air attack. I lived next to the bridge so we constantly had to go somewhere because the bridges were the target. There was also a siren to end the danger, a monotonous tone, which we loved to hear. Then we would regularly continue with all the activities, go shopping, play outside, cross the bridge.

The evenings were always more stressful because then the warning siren was heard more often. After the siren, the sound of an airplanes was heard and then you could feel the detonation, something like an earthquake. We glued the windows with duct tape so they wouldn't crack and we waited. The bombing was actually a waiting. Wainting for something to happen and waiting for something to pass.

Why did I write about this war experience? Because from this experience comes a very important conclusion.

When someone says "I want peace in the world" I remember the election for Miss World when that was the usual answer of all those beautiful women. 😊 But it's not just a phrase. Peace is truly the greatest value.

A peaceful environment will allow you to live the way you want. To move everywhere freely, to cross the bridge when you need to, not to look at places around you as someone's target, not to fear for yourself as a target, not to be limited by warning alarms. We do not think about all this until we get into a situation where we may lose our peace. Then we begin to appreciate how happy we actually are when we live in peace. It is also very important to achieve inner peace that leads to achieving the state of greatest personal satisfaction.

Without peace, we are just beings who wander in fear and run away from everything, even from ourselves. Find peace in yourself and hope for peace in the world.

Thank you very much for reading.

Article and lead image are original and mine.

All the best.