Blog: Summer of psalms

We had ser­vi­ces in Ter­vo­la church on the se­cond Sun­day of July. There was one ser­mon and some sin­ging. I me­ant to re­mem­ber the psalm text that was read as an int­ro­duc­ti­on to the ser­mon, but I for­got it. I won­der if it was Psalm 85 or 86? or 84?

Blog: Half of my life

On May 13th this ye­ar my hus­band had spent half of his life with me. For me, that mi­les­to­ne date was al­re­a­dy in No­vem­ber last ye­ar. I had on­ce cal­cu­la­ted those da­tes just for fun, but in the bust­le of dai­ly life I had for­got­ten my own mi­les­to­ne date.

Blog: Exceptionally sensitive conscience

I will write about a to­pic that I, and pro­bab­ly many of those who are like me, would rat­her not dis­cuss with ot­her pe­op­le. I hope that what I say here will ser­ve as peer sup­port to those tor­men­ted by si­mi­lar an­xie­ties.

Blog: Experiences of support and foster parenting

While fol­lo­wing the li­ves of my sib­lings’ fa­mi­lies and child­ren as a yo­ung girl, I dre­a­med of a fa­mi­ly of my own. But the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her had dif­fe­rent plans for me.

Blog: A dream come true

Do you have a big dream right now? So­met­hing conc­re­te and comp­le­te­ly re­a­li­zab­le? Watch out: it may be­co­me true some day. Ma­y­be not qui­te pain­les­s­ly and not right away, but some day what is now on­ly a dream may ac­tu­al­ly be re­a­li­ty

Blog: Do you have a longing?

She looks di­rect­ly at me, but then her gaze shifts to the win­dow and the lar­ge as­pen trees and dark green spru­ces that grow out­si­de.

Blog: A small angel above my head

We adults were a bit em­bar­ras­sed and al­so loo­ked out of the win­dow. We saw neit­her an an­gel, nor any ot­her flying cre­a­tu­re. We were won­de­ring if the child re­al­ly saw an an­gel or just a bird.

Blog: Senior fitness

I go jog­ging five ti­mes a week for about three qu­ar­ters of an hour at a time. I do stretc­hing and ot­her exer­ci­ses at home. I go swim­ming with my wife.

Blog: Campus Luokkanen

I’m sure this will be OK. We will just do one month of dis­tan­ce schoo­ling at home. No-one will need to re­pe­at a grade, no-one will be se­ri­ous­ly left be­hind in such a short time. Very good that none of our kids have any need for spe­ci­al sup­port, and I on­ly have five kids to keep an eye on. Some ot­hers will have a lot more to do.

Blog: Could less actually be more?

Du­ring the ex­cep­ti­o­nal spring of il­l­ness and lock­down, many pe­op­le dis­co­ve­red the rec­re­a­ti­o­nal va­lue of na­tu­re. When you feel ut­ter­ly ex­haus­ted, you can find rest and pe­a­ce in the fo­rest. I hope that, du­ring the co­ro­na­vi­rus pan­de­mic, we le­arnt to re­gard na­tu­re as a sig­ni­fi­cant sour­ce of wel­l­being and to choo­se a more en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly-friend­ly way of life.