The absence of answers does not mean the absence of God. Have you ever lived through a season when adversity arrives like a wave, then another, and then another still? Not the kind of wave that merely unsettles the surface, but the kind that rises suddenly and breaks over the whole of your life, sweeping…
Category: Reflections
Music and Dance
We may never know how far one thoughtful gesture will travel through another person’s life. As a thoughtful Mother’s Day gift, my daughter took me last night to an evening of candlelight, music, and dance. It was one of those gifts that reaches far beyond the moment itself. My tired soul received it with gratitude…
My Son’s Wedding
A mother’s heart somehow holds both, the grown child standing before them and the little child remembered so clearly. My grandma taught me the love of proverbs, quotes, and sayings and used them often in her everyday speech. She would come up with all sorts, from funny to the serious, but every one of them…
My Dad, My Hero
There is deep tenderness in becoming the strength for someone who once was yours. I was told that when I came into this world, my father was especially glad that the baby placed into his arms was a little girl. I have often pictured that moment in my mind, my father looking down at me…
Karelian Weddings
My son is getting married the day after tomorrow. Our family is living in that tender space just before a wedding, where joy, excitement and nervous butterflies all seem to breathe side by side. There is laughter, last-minute preparations, quiet emotion, and that sense that something beautiful is almost here. And what a joy it…
Baking with Grandma
The wisdom we remember best is often woven into ordinary time spent together. There are certain smells that do far more than drift through a house. They open doors to the past. They loosen memories that have been sitting quietly in the heart for years. For me, the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, rich…
One Day in September
A new life is built by meeting one unfamiliar moment at a time. The morning after arriving in Australia from Finland, my family went for a walk from our new home at the migrant Midway hostel in Maribyrnong. I suppose we wanted to see this strange new country we had landed in, to step out…
The Magic Word
Delivery matters, but warmth does not sound the same in every language or culture. To an English-speaking ear, Finnish can sound a little blunt. The words do not always arrive wrapped in softness. They are not dressed up or sweetened unnecessarily. Finns tend to say what they mean and mean what they say. There is…
Hope
Hope is not certainty that life will become easier, but the courage to believe that darkness will not have the final word. Have you ever wondered why, in the very worst moments of human history, hope so often seems to rise most clearly? It is one of life’s great mysteries. In the midst of war,…
I Found It!
Our roots help explain who we are. When my brother and I were children, we loved playing hot and cold. One of us would hide some small object, and the other would become the hunter, searching, guessing, listening for clues. The closer the hunter came, the louder and more excited the cries would be: “hotter……
Apples of Gold 