Each person we lose holds a unique place in our lives, and their absence leaves a space no one else can fill. 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,…
Tag: reflection
Learning to Dance in the Rain
We cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we live through it. 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…
I Still Call Australia Home
To belong to two cultures is not to be divided, but to become a bridge between them. Once again, it came over me with full force, like a bolt out of the blue. At the moment, we have Peter’s Finnish relatives staying with us on their very first visit to Australia. It has been such…
The Great Unknown
Life is fragile, but God’s love remains steadfast through every unknown road. 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…
Changing Seasons
Surrendering to a season of slowing down is not giving up; it is understanding that we are more than our achievements and that even our quietest days matter. The seasons come and the seasons change. Time keeps moving, steady and unrelenting. Life can feel long when we are walking through it, yet deep down we…
Fabric of Life
We may not understand every painful season, but we can trust that God is present and working with purpose through it all. When you look at the fabric of your life so far, what colours do you see woven through it? Which shades have been the most dominant? What patterns have emerged in the tapestry…
The Fire
Written by Jaana M. H. JokinenTold by my grandmother, Hilja MariaMarch 1913, Joroinen, Finland It was a cold early spring day in Joroinen, in Northern Savonia in the eastern part of Finland, where my family lived. Joroinen is often called the “Paris of Savonia”, because in the 1700s the noblemen there mainly spoke French. Even…
Second Chance
Be grateful for the life you have been given, and let that gratitude change how you live it. This year, I have found myself in circumstances I would not wish on anyone. Circumstances that have shaken me, humbled me, and brought me to a place of deep reflection. Yet it is often in life’s most…
Escape
Sometimes the best way to keep going is to stop for a while. The tougher life becomes, the more I find myself daydreaming of escape. The dictionary tells me that escape means “to get free from something”, and there are days when that definition feels almost painfully simple. If only getting free were as easy…
Road Closed
When life feels overwhelming, faith gives us somewhere safe to rest. On rainy summer days, my mum used to send us children up into the attic. As an adult, I understand why. Ours was only a small cottage, and when rain kept us indoors, we children must have made the walls ring with our noise,…
