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Thursday, July 06, 2006

Family Portraits

From an email I sent to good friend Conor McCreery:

"Finland... yes... what to say. I actually think of you often because of our old Finnish pride rivalry thing that we like to ham up. I STILL think I'm totally justified because, I look up and around me, out the window and inside here too, I see nature, wood, family, more wood. I can smell the sauna at all times. I can hear the wind in the trees. And if I look carefully enough, I can even see the lake through the trees. I know this is in Canada too, but somehow I feel more connected to it here.

I keep coming back to searching for hints of who I am in my family. Their humour, their hard work, their general easy-goingness, relative non-materialism, their value of relationships and work and yet at the same time knowing and thinking about the world. I feel of this stock, if that makes any sense. I keep thinking, "Now, Chris understands me" because he sees where I'm from. Not just the geography but, more importantly, the people of my family. Maybe he has known me all along and I am just getting to know myself.

Yesterday Chris and I spent time with Mika and Sian (my bro and gfriend), Reijo, Liisa, Kaisa, Antti, Heli, Harri, Eeva, Aada, Eero, and Jaakko. That's 12 relatives plus the 2 of us. It's basic arithmetic and probably not all that exciting for the common observer, but NEVER are there that many of us gathered in Canada. Never. And here it's so easy. We just come together. That's it. I could almost weep for missing this in my life."

Yesterday's highlight: Late at night, we all gather aroud the computer and watch the photoshow of pictures come across the screen. Uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, second cousins, husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters. All connected. We watch as one by one the images pass and we laugh at ourselves, we love each other, and we belong. This I will remember.



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