Sometimes life has a way of stopping us in our tracks, quietly urging us to reflect. It’s so easy to get swept up in the holiday buzz — the endless plans, the lists, the preparations. This year my Christmas tree is surrounded by a growing pile of gifts, a testament to my large and loving…
Tag: Finland
Grandfather Clock
There is a particular kind of solace that lives in my family’s old grandfather clock. It hangs on the wall downstairs, keeping time with its steady, gentle tick-tock. On days when life feels brittle — when I am frazzled or unsettled — I pause and listen. The sound wraps around me like a lullaby. It…
Family Recipes
Food has a way of carrying us home. For me, that home begins in a sunlit kitchen where the scent of fresh bread mingled with simmering soup, wrapping itself around everything like a warm embrace. I can still hear the gentle clink of utensils, the soft hum of the oven, and above it all, my…
Nineteen- Fiftysix
In 1956, in the steady gentle rhythm of Helsinki life, my grandfather began each day in the little home he shared with my grandmother on Näkinkuja. I often find myself picturing those mornings so clearly, as though I can almost step into them. Their home was warm and snug, and already full of the familiar…
Roots & Wings
For those of us Finns who live overseas, identity is something tender. It is more than where we were born or where we live now. It lives quietly within us — in our language, our memories, and in that ache for something we can never fully leave behind. We may build our lives far from…
Cardamom Spice
There is a place in my childhood memories sweeter than almost any other — my grandma’s kitchen. There was nowhere on earth I would rather have been than in my mummi’s warm and welcoming kitchen, learning to bake pulla, that beautiful sweet Finnish cardamom bread whose scent alone can carry me straight back to childhood….
Childhood Summer Cottage
Although Helsinki’s cobbled streets and majestic architecture formed the backdrop of my early life, my world was anchored in one small, precious place within that city. In the northeastern corner of Helsinki, where the pulse of the city softens and nature quietly takes over, lies the lovely neighbourhood of Itä-Pakila. It was there, in a…
Life is Short
Have you ever received news that leaves you wandering through the day in a daze, your mind so full and heavy with thoughts that, no matter how much you want to be productive, you simply cannot gather yourself to do anything? Today is one of those days for me. This morning, I woke to unexpected…
A Few Words
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 without even realising it fully when I was younger. There is something in Finnish nature…
Outside Finns
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 are called ulkosuomalaiset. Ulko means outside. Suomalaiset means Finns. We are the outside Finns. Even in the word itself there is something that moves me….
Apples of Gold 