Perhaps the wisdom of growing older is realising that the hands we feared were empty have been holding more than we knew. When I was a little girl, about six years old, living in Helsinki, one of my mother’s dearest friends came to our home for supper. Her name was Eila. She lived nearby and…
Category: Reflections
Timeless Treasures
Some people belong not only to our memories, but to the story of who we are. When I was a little girl living in Finland, I had a friend who was woven deeply into the fabric of my childhood. Her name was Tiina. We lived only a few hundred metres from each other, and we…
Wait a Minute
Sometimes the smallest rituals provide the steadiness that difficult days cannot. There is something in me that longs to find joy in every single day. I know, of course, that some days make that easier than others. Some arrive carrying lightness, offering up small gifts almost without asking. Others feel heavy from the moment we…
Wood-smoke and Cinnamon
Life is fleeting, and that is all the more reason to notice, cherish and be grateful for its beauty while it is here. Finland is beautiful in every season, but autumn has always felt the most personal to me. There is something about it that reaches past the eyes and settles deep in the heart….
Treasured Simplicity
The deepest sense of home comes from feeling known without needing to explain who we are. Some places do not simply hold memories. They hold parts of us. That is how Finland feels to me. Not only as the country of my birth, but as a place where something deep within me still recognises itself….
The Royal Symphony
Even the most beautiful earthy life is only a glimpse of what lies beyond. Some memories do not fade with time. Instead, they settle more deeply within us, waiting quietly until life gives them new meaning. One such memory for me is an evening at the Sydney Opera House, where Peter and I had the…
Everyday Moments
Sometimes the way we see the world helps others rediscover the beauty they have stopped noticing. I have lived in Australia for most of my life now. As the years pass, I think we all grow used to the world around us. What once may have felt striking or new slowly becomes familiar, and familiarity…
Blue and White
What we experience as children, we often only truly understand as as adults. I was eleven when my family left Finland and migrated to Australia. At that age, I could not possibly grasp the full weight of what was happening. To me, the biggest wonder was that I was about to fly on an aeroplane…
Time Travelling
Those we love never truly leave us. I caught myself daydreaming today, though it felt like much more than that. In my mind, I had travelled back to the happy days of my childhood, back to my grandma’s house, back to everything that felt safe and warm and deeply loved. The Finnish word mummi has…
Winter of Discontent
In seasons of survival, self-compassion becomes a necessity, not an indulgence. Lately I have found myself living in a season I would never have chosen, yet one I seem unable to hurry through. It has come quietly, almost unnoticed at first, and then all at once it was simply there, settling over my days, my…
Apples of Gold 