Picture of the "Shoes on the Danube Bank" Memorial in Budapest, Hungary
(6 min read)

This morning, I unexpectedly started my day in tears.

You see, I have this (unhealthy) habit of checking my mobile phone first thing in the morning when I wake, and the (illogical) habit of scrolling through my Facebook feeds brought me much pain today.

A ton about the bombings in Aleppo, Syria has been appearing in my Facebook feeds recently. And this morning, I causally clicked on a couple of videos as I usually do, unaware of the impact these videos was going to create on me. Although no more than a minute long each, every single one of them caught me totally off-guard, affected me in more ways than I could imagine and left poignant snapshots appearing consistently on repeat mode in my head. A toddler filled with grime and blood, looking confused and disoriented as he sat quietly in the ambulance amidst a sea of chaos. A devastated young boy wailing uncontrollably as he embraced his deceased father, repeatedly asking him not to leave. A helpless, anguished mother desperately searching for his son, unaware that he had been killed by the bombings. The intensity of grief, loss and pain exhibited by such raw emotions is heart-breaking to witness.

​If these are just snapshots of the situations happening right now, I can’t even bring myself to fathom all that is going on deep inside each of these victims’ hearts.