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Last sum­mer I was ab­le to at­tend the con­fir­ma­ti­on ser­vi­ces of three grandc­hild­ren. They were fes­ti­ve oc­ca­si­ons. The yo­ung con­fir­mand may even be a bit em­bar­ras­sed as the cen­ter of at­ten­ti­on, sur­roun­ded by his or her grand­pa­rents, god­pa­rents, ot­her re­la­ti­ves and friends who have come to ce­leb­ra­te.

On a speaking trip

My fat­her ser­ved as a spe­a­ker for de­ca­des. When it was his turn to speak at ser­vi­ces in our home cong­re­ga­ti­on, it was al­wa­ys spe­ci­al for us, his child­ren. I do not think I was ever ner­vous for my fat­her. Ma­y­be I did not even wor­ry about such things as a child. But I do re­mem­ber the spe­ci­al fee­ling I had when I sat at ser­vi­ces, lis­te­ning to my fat­her speak.

Blog: Now or never

When I was pon­de­ring whet­her or not to start as a blog­ger, I ap­p­ro­ac­hed the to­pic from a num­ber of pers­pec­ti­ves. What things could I give and what could I lose? I gu­ess they would tell me if my posts are not good enough, or if my style of wri­ting is not ap­p­rop­ri­a­te for the for­mat. And I could get caught red-han­ded by an ac­qu­ain­tan­ce, ha­ving pos­ted an ext­re­me­ly pro­found text on­li­ne. That ac­tu­al­ly hap­pe­ned al­re­a­dy. ”I wouldn’t have gu­es­sed that a guy like you would be wri­ting a blog”, said one of my re­a­ders.

Blog: Each years makes us older

This will be my last blog post for Päi­vä­mies – I think. I have been blog­ging for two ye­ars, sub­mit­ting a post eve­ry month.

Blog: Do we only accept ”good” friends?

I got feed­back about my pre­vi­ous blog post that made me pon­der more deep­ly about how we in­te­ract with ot­her pe­op­le. This is part of the feed­back mes­sa­ge:

Blog: Romantic journey in wilderness

Whe­ne­ver I think about a jour­ney in wil­der­ness, I im­me­di­a­te­ly re­mem­ber the 40 ye­ars that the pe­op­le of Is­ra­el spent tra­ve­ling from Egypt to what is now Is­ra­el. It was an ar­duo­us and dan­ge­rous jour­ney ac­ross a dry and hot de­sert. The story of that jour­ney inc­lu­des desc­rip­ti­ons of ar­gu­ments, comp­laints, re­bel­li­on and des­pair. But there were al­so good mo­ments. Skil­l­ful ar­tists have even rep­re­sen­ted that jour­ney as a ro­man­tic ex­pe­di­ti­on.

Blog: Children’s rights are for all children

In the Fin­nish ca­len­dar, No­vem­ber 20th is de­sig­na­ted as the Day of Child­ren’s Rights and the week of No­vem­ber 15th-20th as the Week of Child­ren’s Rights. This day has been in our ca­len­dar sin­ce 2002. The UN ap­p­ro­ved and ra­ti­fied the Con­ven­ti­on on Child­ren’s Hu­man Rights in 1989, and the con­ven­ti­on came in­to ef­fect in Fin­land 30 ye­ars ago, at the be­gin­ning of 1991.

Blog: Lakeside happiness

I had been ho­ping we could take time in the ear­ly spring to vi­sit my fat­her’s home, an old farm cal­led Lil­va­sa­ho at Juu­pa­jo­ki. We have usu­al­ly gone there eve­ry sum­mer, re­cent­ly even more of­ten. No-one li­ves there ye­ar-round, but pe­op­le go there in the sum­mer for va­ca­ti­on. The place is so be­au­ti­ful and pe­a­ce­ful, and we en­joy doing odd cho­res while there.

Blog: My summer, did you go away already?

Thank you for ha­ving come, sum­mer. You, sum­mer, are sheer light, light, light. You give growth even at ti­mes of drought. You give us all that we need to sur­vi­ve un­til you come back again. Thank you, sum­mer, for ha­ving come.

Blog: Encompassed by total grace

I stand on the yard and gaze in­to au­tum­nal twi­light. My face is wet from driz­z­le. I take a deep bre­ath. I know there are far too many things that re­qui­re my at­ten­ti­on. Too many ex­pec­ta­ti­ons and de­mands. I stare in­to the dee­pe­ning dusk. There is a lump in my throat. I feel so ina­de­qu­a­te.