We can acknowledge our fear without allowing it to silence our passion. Have you ever carried a fear so private, so difficult to name, that even whispering it to yourself feels dangerous? The kind of fear that seems to gather strength the moment it is acknowledged, as though giving it words might somehow invite it…
Category: Reflections
Kintsugi
God does not waste our brokenness; if we allow Him, He can tenderly transform it into wisdom, compassion and beauty. Kintsugi is a 15th-century Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The word comes from kin, meaning gold, and tsugi, meaning joinery — to join with gold. The more I think about it, the…
This Moment
Being fully present is the closest we can come to holding on to what cannot last. I rose before the sun this morning and slipped out the door while the world was still half asleep. The birds were already awake, singing their bright hopeful songs into the dawn, sounding far more cheerful than I felt…
A Few Words
The true value of our words is revealed by how faithfully we stand behind them. If I were asked to name one thing that lies at the heart of Finnish people, I think I would say this: Finns place great value on words. That is something I have carried with me all my life, perhaps…
Life Defining Moments
We are not promised tomorrow, but while we are still here, every ordinary day is sacred, those we love are worth holding close, and every unfinished page is a gift from God. There are some moments in life that do not simply live in our memory. They mark us. They sear themselves into us so…
Dandelion Puffballs
Sometimes life does not need to change for our hearts to feel lighter; we simply need to look at it with different eyes. Have you ever gone for a walk with a small child and held their little hand in yours as they skip along beside you? Their fingers curl trustingly around your own, while…
His Eye is on the Sparrow
God often uses the smallest, most ordinary things to remind tired hearts that His care has never left them. During winter this year, Peter and I wandered into a little corner café in the middle of the city. I took the table by the window while he went to order, and for a few quiet…
Outside Finns
Longing for where we came from is not a failure to belong where we are, but a reflection of how deeply we have loved both. There is a word in Finland for people like me, for people like us — those of us who were born there, but live somewhere else in the world. We…
Afternoon Tea
We are each a bridge between the generations that came before us and those that come after us. I recently had my grandson stay for a couple of nights during the school holidays, and as always, the house seemed changed by his presence. It felt fuller somehow, livelier, warmer, threaded through with movement, laughter, questions,…
Something to Smile About
Notice what makes you smile. Those small moments are not interruptions to life, they are life. What makes you smile? I sometimes think life poses this question softly, in the middle of the most ordinary moments. Not during the grand occasions we prepare for and photograph and remember, but in the passing fragments of an…
Apples of Gold 