Thursday, November 29, 2012

Day 58







These are the latest results of my cooking project. It started over 2 years ago, because I needed to have more variety of the food I eat. First I collected easy to do recipies. Already at the start I found many recipies which had beet root in, and I have been in love of that red root vegetable ever since. These are patties, that have minced meat and beet root in them and they are absolutely delicious!
Day 57







I have been trying to take pictures of squirrels, but most of the time they are just too fast for my camera. I think (or want to believe so), that this one is the same I have seen before. It was almost like he wanted me to get the picture. So here is the city squirrel from Korso.
Day 56






This autumn there has been lots of birds flying in flocks. It's amazing to follow, what kind of patterns the birds do, flocks divine, come back again, disappear, when birds find suitable tree. Sometimes when it's dark, you can hear the birds, but not see them. Then the feeling is almost like in the movie The Birds. Little suspense to every day live!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Day 55





I am lucky, because I have had an opportunity to see and sometimes even to participate to multicultural work. These cupcakes were made for the international evening of Setlementti Louhela. These events have always been very vibrant, almost breath taking. Today we heard about different countries and cultures, enjoyed of variety of music and dance and met many new friends from all over the world. And I bet it brought a wide smile to faces of everyone of us.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Day 54




First I wasn't happy with the fact that my Samsung Galaxy S has no flashlight. But then I noticed how amazing colors appeared in pictures. This one is pretty much how it was in reality, the blue just shined through the darkness.
Day 53







When it's grey outside, one can always add some green inside. I use to be hopeless with plants, every one died sooner than later. But then I learned the most important thing: I stopped trying to drown them. So moderation was the key in this case too..

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Day 52






When the dark time is getting longer and longer, we really need some innovative ways to have more light. This is what my mother did, alternative use to that BIG cognac glass.

Today has been very gray and dark day. I find myself wishing, that there would be snow soon.


Friday, November 16, 2012

Day 51






After I started actively to take pictures, I have seen so much more of the world around me. This one is from the morning, without camera I would have just walked past this scene. Now I can share it with you.
Day 50





I have been wandering, why so many modern churches look cold and unfriendly. I wonder what went throught the head of the architect whom designed this church? In the darkness it looks better, but in the daylight it's just big gray lump. Why can't buildings be beautiful?

Another notice: It's the season, when I have time to go out and take pictures, it's always dark.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Day 49







Some are afraid of darkness. I miss it in summer or when there is no escaping of the city lights. Darkness is peaceful, it gives me time to think. In darkness the rays of light make the world seem totally different. Sometimes more scary, sometimes more magical. But never boring.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012



I have started a new project 48 days ago. I decided that I'm going to take one picture per day, picture that tells something of my day or where I have spent my day. So far it has been challenging as I have found out, that I normally move around in quite small area. In the same time I have noticed, that I see my world differently, when I look it through camera. Or I see more of the world.

I use Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 to take the pictures and to edit them. Sometimes I have wished, that I would have had a better camera, but after a thought, I like the challenge that my Samsung devices give to me. And I have learned to be merciful to myself, my pictures tell about my world and they are perfect in their own way.

If you are interested to see my pictures, you can see them in instagram.com/katrik2 . There a quite a few pictures already, the picture of the day 48 is http://instagram.com/p/R-oVT_kAB3/ .

The picture in this blog is special to me and tells you something about me. Those who follow me in Twitter or are my Facebook friends know, that I seldom use pictures of myself, not even as avatars. So if you are in Finland and see the combination from the picture, there is a high probability, that you are also looking at me. Feel free to come and say hello!

I have decided to go one step further with my project. I'm going to share the picture of the day also here in my blog and add a small story to each one. What kind of story, I have no idea yet. We'll see what happens tomorrow as the day 49 will be the first one with a story.

Wish me luck :-)!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Forgiveness

I have thought about forgiveness a lot lately. As a victim-offender mediator it is very important question and I talk a lot about it with my mediator friends. But we talk about situation, where the one who has been hurt/violated/injured forgives to one who have hurt her/him. But many times it would be as important to forgive yourself too.

I have met many victims, who have a hard time to forgive themselves. "Why didn't I defend myself? Why didn't I leave? Why didn't I act differently, so that I wouldn't have irritated him/her?" Unfortunately we who want to help, sometimes add the self-blame: "You should leave her/him? Why didn't you hit back?"

What if our inability to forgive ourselves, can turn to hate, bitterness and demand of revenge? What if we really can forgive others after we have forgiven ourselves? We can't change the past incidents, but we can learn from them. Life will throw us to situations, where we don't know what to do and where we feel ourselves helpless. We try to survive the best way we know, with abilities and tools we have in that particular moment.

So what if we change the questions we ask ourselves after different kind of crisis. Did I have any other option to act differently? Would it changed anything? Have I learned something? What have I learned? Have I forgiven myself?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

"We didn't know, it was that bad"

This week we have again talked about bullying at school in Finland. We have been shown a story of Elisa, 15 year old girl, who was brutally bullied. In fact Elisa was threatened, assaulted, she experienced such violence, which to most of us is totally outside of our experience. Unfortunately in Elisa's case, violence got so bad, that she didn't see any other choice than kill herself. Such a waste.

I haven't seen any interview of Elisa's teachers, but in one story, they have said that "we didn't know, it was that bad". I worked almost 5 years with targets of bullying and this isn't the first time I heard that sentence. "We didn't know, it was that bad" in fact says, that teachers knew about bullying, they just didn't see it so serious, that they would have done something. I just wonder, how bad it should be, so that adults would intervene? Too many times, there is no such point, there is only "we didn't know, it was that bad". Adults hide behind those words.

I have spoken with parents, whose children have committed suicide after years of bullying. I have spoken with children, who have had suicidal tendencies, because they have been bullied for years. I have spoken with adults, who have deep scars, because they were bullied for years at school. Unspeakable violence has made permanent cracks to their lives. The violence they have suffered is such, that they all have had difficulties to get help or even understanding to the pain they have experienced.

We all have a right to live our lives without violence or even threat of it. We all have a responsibility to act so that our world would be non-violent. We all have a responsibility to see. We all have a responsibility to listen.

We can't hide behind the idea, that adults can't see bullying. We have to create such school cultures, where non-violent behaviour is a norm. We have to create such cultures, where children have a courage to get help, when words like "leave me alone" or "stop that", don't work. We have to create such cultures, where children trust adults and trust that adults will help. And most of all, we adults, must have a courage to ask and to listen.

Don't wait.