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”…

Kintsugi

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 more deeply it speaks to me, because it feels like so much more than an art form. It feels like…

Life Defining Moments

There are some moments in life that do not simply live in our memory. They mark us. They sear themselves into us so deeply that no amount of time can soften their edges. Years may pass, whole seasons of life may come and go, and still those moments remain startlingly near, as if they happened…

His Eye is on the Sparrow

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 moments I sat alone, watching Melbourne through the glass. Outside, the last of the autumn leaves were still clinging…