On Easter Sunday, there’s a hush in the air that always moves me. The dawn feels quiet and golden, as though the whole world is rising together into the same soft light. Shadows stretch long across the ground, the birds seem louder than usual, and in the Christian calendar it is the day that quietly…
Tag: faith
Stillness
Why don’t we take more time to stop and reflect? It’s a question that stirs the soul. In a world that celebrates hustle, speed, and productivity, stillness feels almost rebellious. To stop and reflect is to say: This moment matters. I matter.And yet we race on — chasing deadlines, drowning in to-do lists, scrolling endlessly…
Cancer Diagnosis
I’m the kind of person who remembers anniversaries — not only the joyful ones, but the ones that mark life’s deep turning points. I’ve always been this way. Certain days settle into my bones and refuse to be forgotten. They become quiet markers along the road — places where life changed direction. These moments help…
This World Needs Christmas
There are some stories that don’t fade with time. They settle into the soul and stay there. One of them is the Christmas of 1914. I often try to picture it. Young men far from home, shivering in muddy trenches along the Western Front during World War I. Cold. Exhausted. Surrounded by the constant thunder…
A Dream
There we were today, Peter and I, sitting in the cosy backyard of our favourite café, wrapped in the warmth of the summer sun and the easy comfort of conversation. Amid the soft hum of voices and the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee, a question rose quietly between us: what would be the one…
My Pink Ribbon Day
After weeks of helping care for my elderly parents, I have been carrying a kind of tiredness that sinks right down into your bones. And yet, this morning, in the very early hours, I found myself wide awake. Melbourne was putting on quite a show outside, with lightning flashing across the sky as a fast-moving…
Good Morning Twenty Twenty-Four
I find myself waking up, or perhaps more truthfully, trying to pull myself into a new year. It feels like a tug-of-war between the sweetness of dreamland, which keeps calling me back, and the quiet desire to get up and savour the very first chai of twenty twenty-four. The temptation to sink deeper into sleep…
Learning to Dance in the Rain
Life is a continuous learning experience. One of the questions I most enjoy asking older people is what life lessons they have learned along the way. It is also a question I return to often in my own heart. In Finland, when people talk about shopping, they sometimes jokingly ask each other how much “stuck”…
The Great Unknown
Some years ago, while getting ready for what seemed like just another ordinary day, a breakfast television interview caught my attention. Lisa Marie Presley was speaking about music, her struggle with addiction, and the memories she carried of her father, Elvis Presley. Because Lisa Marie was born around the same time as I was, and…
Childhood Home
Written by Jaana M. H. JokinenTold by my mother, Mirja AnneliSeptember 1949, Kallio, Helsinki, Finland Slowly but surely, the days were growing colder and darker. School had started again, and autumn had arrived. I have always been a summer person, so even as an eight-year-old, I was not at all pleased by the changing season….
Apples of Gold 