We have a lar­ge to­wer of toi­let pa­per in our li­ving room. The to­wer is as tall as the child­ren and qui­te uns­tab­le. Using gym­nas­tic rings, the child­ren one by one swing over to the to­wer and kick it over. The room is full of laugh­ter, joy and gig­g­les.

Din­ner is in pro­cess, but I de­ci­de to join the fun and vi­deo a few clips. Eve­ry­o­ne has their own style when kic­king over the to­wer. One does a fan­cy ka­ra­te kick and anot­her swings back and forth first to gat­her speed. The toi­let pa­per rol­ls fly imp­res­si­ve­ly ac­ross the room, on­ly to be gat­he­red and re­built. This hap­pens time and again.

This is not so­met­hing new in our home. Eve­ry on­ce in a while, if we’ve bought a lar­ge amount of toi­let pa­per, the child­ren cre­a­te the most cre­a­ti­ve ga­mes with them be­fo­re they are put ne­at­ly in the cup­bo­ard to await use. It is si­mi­lar to card­bo­ard bo­xes. Both are inex­pen­si­ve but a good toy for a short while that en­cou­ra­ge cre­a­ti­vi­ty.

The con­cer­ning co­ro­na­vi­rus has brought many side ef­fects in­to our li­ves, and one of them is that many have bought lar­ge qu­an­ti­ties of toi­let pa­per. This in turn has cau­sed many hu­mo­ris­tic posts and me­mes on so­ci­al me­dia. Hu­mor has al­wa­ys been a me­ans of sur­vi­val when things be­co­me dif­fi­cult.

In the news there are re­ports of bor­ders and ports being clo­sed. There is an­xi­ous­ness in the air, we are pre­pa­ring for the unk­nown which can be frigh­te­ning. We do not know how we will come out, there is un­cer­tain­ty around us.

It has been a long time that we have had to, as a na­ti­on stand to­get­her and think of the ones around us in so­cie­ty. My ge­ne­ra­ti­on has not fa­ced a chal­len­ge such as this, un­li­ke our grand­pa­rents that have fa­ced war. Du­ring re­cent de­ca­des we have very in­di­vi­du­a­lis­ti­cal­ly been ab­le to come and go.

We have been inst­ruc­ted to avoid un­ne­ces­sa­ry phy­si­cal so­ci­al con­tact. It is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that when we so­ci­al dis­tan­ce, we are pro­tec­ting the we­a­kest among us. The he­alt­hy and yo­ung may car­ry the co­ro­na­vi­rus with lit­t­le or no symp­toms, but for the el­der­ly and those that have chro­nic il­l­ness it can be se­ri­ous.

I am thank­ful that we have skil­led he­alth care wor­kers and of­fi­ci­als ma­king de­ci­si­ons on our be­half. We can trust their wis­dom and jud­ge­ment. Wis­dom is a gift from God. We may al­so trust in the po­wer of pra­yer.

The co­ming days con­tain many unk­nowns, but I do dare to pre­dict that this will chan­ge us as a so­cie­ty. I hope that it will bring us emo­ti­o­nal­ly clo­ser to­get­her, just as Pre­si­dent Nii­nis­tö en­cou­ra­ged. Many bu­si­nes­ses and ent­rep­re­neurs will have dif­fi­cult ti­mes ahe­ad of them, but ot­hers will be­ne­fit if they are ab­le to pro­du­ce the good and ser­vi­ces that pe­op­le cur­rent­ly need. Per­haps we will start to fa­vor lo­cal­ly pro­du­ced goods for the simp­le re­a­son that goods pro­du­ced far away are har­der to find.

This si­tu­a­ti­on en­cou­ra­ges us to pau­se at what is most im­por­tant in our li­ves. Life per­haps will be­co­me more calm, when gat­he­rings and hob­bies are can­cel­led. We are spen­ding more time at home, ba­king, cle­a­ning, and en­jo­ying the out­doors. We can re­con­nect with our lo­ved ones. We may no­ti­ce all the good that is near us. So­me­ti­mes so­met­hing very good co­mes out of so­met­hing so bad.

Even though we could not go to ser­vi­ces on Sun­day, we were con­nec­ted to ot­her be­lie­vers through the in­ter­net. With our lit­t­le ones we par­ti­ci­pa­ted in vir­tu­al Sun­day school and to­get­her as the whole fa­mi­ly we la­ter lis­te­ned to ser­vi­ces. In the eve­ning as I was put­ting the ba­bies to sleep, I lis­te­ned to the Reis­jär­vi opis­to pre­sen­ta­ti­on. The ini­ti­al plan was that they would have tra­ve­led to Ou­lu to tell po­ten­ti­al stu­dents about opis­to life. Sin­ce all phy­si­cal gat­he­rings were can­cel­led, it was bro­ad­cas­ted over the in­ter­net. The pre­sen­ta­ti­on and choir mu­sic was full of hope for the fu­tu­re. It cal­med the mind and he­art.

Du­ring the opis­to-pre­sen­ta­ti­on, the words of one stu­dent re­mai­ned top­most in my mind, “It is best when one can ask for for­gi­ve­ness and for­gi­ve eve­ry­day. With the po­wer of the gos­pel, it is safe to con­ti­nue.”

We were phy­si­cal­ly far, but emo­ti­o­nal­ly close by. And my mind was at pe­a­ce when I went to sleep.

Text and trans­la­ti­on: Lai­la Ul­jas

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.