When my wife and I moved from Canada to Ukraine in 2019, the idea was to be based in Kyiv for a few years to work and travel around Europe, the Near East, India, and eventually settle back in Toronto. Since then, the gods and powers that be decided to play SimCity with the planet and threw a pandemic that glued us to Ukraine, and then a war that pushed us off to the shores of Brazil. Plans - and intentions- have been changing continuously throughout this time. 

Seeing the pyramids of Giza has always been on any version of these plans, and they have always been delayed for a ‘better time’. This Spring Iana Komarnytska and I decided to get back on the road and step into fulfilling postponed dreams, with all the flaws and imperfections of timing.

As I finally stood there, under that blazing sun, I imagined the long-gone white casing stones that at better times covered the pyramid walls. I thought of the people who were mad enough to make such marvelous things. Were they creating over-sided tombs for their politicians, as today’s archeologists say, or were they making something way more profound as today’s mystics hope?        

Whatever their vision was, at some point in the deep past they thought it better not to wait, better to go and build dreams, stone by stone, powered by what I can only fathom were hopes for better times to come. 

And I think they knew what I realized during this visit:

Better times are not to be waited for. 

Better times are made.