Hello friends!

The new year is still quite fresh and new. Possibilities and outcomes of what lie ahead should look wide open and limitless, yet to me, look for the first time, really concerning and unfamiliar. Thus, I’ve found myself at times employing cautiousness, which for me at least is quite a novel approach. While the use of caution on my part is taken in small steps, it goes nearly without saying that the lens by which I view most everything is certainly skewed by my American upbringing, cultural & gender biases, and life experiences.

Pekka and I are both fine and well, and for all intents and purposes everything here within our little patch is as it was, and as it has been. It is when I look beyond & more broadly away, that many of the serious issues and forces currently underway around the world are causing me greater concern. Issues, so many; (too many!) have morphed via hyper-speed into ever-increasing situations of crisis. At least, this is how it feels to me… What is concerning you the most? Are you experiencing a greater sense of uncertainty? Here are what six faculty members of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) see transpiring in their fields — health, climate, law, tech, the arts and the economy — over the next 12 months.

As I said, for all intents and purposes, life here for us is moving in the same continuum. Gardens grow, and ours is looking quite good at this point in the winter calendar. The weather has been mild, but according to Finnish Meteorologists, ‘not exceptionally mild’. Suffice to say, even the overnight temperatures haven’t been below freezing for much of January, and day times are hovering between 1-5 degrees Celsius. Conditions are expected to be much as they are right now, all the way through February, which if you’re paying attention is just that much closer to spring. The southern region is much more affected by the mild conditions than the more northerly regions of the country. The ground is not frozen solid here, though, and the local lakes are most definitely dangerous as thin ice is prevalent. Of recent note, in other areas, storms which have been brewing and causing havoc in the North Atlantic brought large swathes of property damage to the UK in a named storm called Éowyn. For us here, the storm brought only a little wind for a few daytime hours and poof, the storm was gone. Hardly even noteworthy. Not so in the UK, where things were just horrifying according to videos I’ve seen. More on Finnish weather and climate if you’re interested can be found here–

The non-weather-related news contains more & more instances of discontent, especially along international lines, including an increasing conflict over malicious vandalism to vital Baltic Sea cabling connecting the Nordics and Europe by suspected Russian-backed shadow fleets. Seems there are quite a few international bad actors who are hell-bent on causing as much damage and destruction as they can muster. This is a pattern which is replicating with ever-increasing frequency. One doesn’t have to look too far to see who is emboldening the bad actors around the globe. Unfortunately, my own native country is spearheading the annihilation of domestic and international norms, laws & practices in hourly and daily assaults to the status quo. I’m not at all sure how this is actually being interpreted by Finns and the broader collective of Scandinavia. I can all but assure everyone, the Danes are not at all bemused with any rhetoric being bandied around about Greenland being subsumed by the United States. International LAW still holds sway, and it’s only a deluded fool who would believe otherwise.

However I approach daily life, all of what I’ve just said is a constant cringe in my mind which I know is slowly clouding and fogging up the lens by which I interact with and get about in life. It doesn’t take too much effort to begin imaging how these dramatic and life-changing events are impacting those directly affected in all stations of life and levels of influence. Whether it be from monstrous storms and floods, hellish all-consuming fires, or belligerent bad actors, there’s a lot going on people!! It is my hope that some of these malevolent genies can be put back in their bottles, but I fear that in many cases, the train has left the station. (For our non-native English readers, that last bit is maybe too idiom-rich to be completely understood. -sorry!)

On other fronts, the discovery of something unexpected which was within arms length – literally, has been a very thought-provoking and enjoyable discovery. Let me share with you my latest read: Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind, which you can read for FREE through the Internet Archive

While getting my daily dose of internet, (Substack: Dr. Heather Cox Richardson’s: Letters from an American, and YouTube: assorted cross-platform content) I stumbled upon a video by Big Think with guest speaker, historian and author Yuval Noah Harari. After watching the video, I realized Pekka had one of Harari’s books, which just happened to be sitting on a shelf a mere few feet from my desk. Despite any trepidation you may have about considering reading -Sapiens, I can assure you it’s a very easy read and not easily put down once started. I’d love to know whether you’ve read this or any other Harari book and what your takeaway was.

While I haven’t taken any awe-inspiring photos, there are others who are creating and capturing the breadth and depth of Finnish nature. So it is with the lovely and talented work of Minna Jacobson that I shall conclude this January 2025 missive. Minna sprang back into my newsfeed with delightful images and content that couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Taking time to experience and marvel at the beauty of nature is the gift which keeps on giving. I hope you will indulge yourself in these much-needed and much-appreciated small doses of peace and tranquility. Chasing Misty Mornings in Kuusamo and Kärkelä River: A Photographic Exploration of Nature and History. More about Kuusamo can be found here

Until next time ❤ Take care friends!