The Mind Is Its Own Place

We are still in the middle of the influenza peak season and my family has really got its share this year. I thought we were on clear water already but no. My son was hospitalized because of pneumonia last Wednesday and they also took out his appendix due to severe stomach pain. I stayed in the hospital with him and we returned home yesterday. He is still very weak but recovering. I have also had a bad flu and I’m staying in safely tucked in the sofa.

We are having yet another blizzard and watching the whiteness out of my window makes me think of the time when we were on holiday in the eastern Finland and we stopped to eat in a hotel. It was an old manor house that was surrounded by snow and nearly empty because it wasn’t tourist season yet. And it was so quiet. All the restaurants in the hotel were closed but we were allowed to sit there in an empty and unlit dining hall and eat the food we had brought. Our kids were running up and down the corridors, their voices echoing from the walls. We were glad to be inside from the cold for awhile and ready to continue our adventure after our very extraordinary lunch. Thinking about that place now makes me wonder if it really existed or if I had dreamed it. Or maybe seen in a movie.

People have tried so hard to harness all the powers into their own use, to be able to control what happens next and to be able overcome obstacles. Still there will always be things that are out of our reach. We can’t make us not get sick. We can’t turn the blizzard off. At least for now. We adjust and try to be resourceful. If we can’t go anywhere physically, we can do it in our minds. A friend just told me about reading a book that took her into that world in such an intense way that she feels like she knows the people in the story personally. Or we can try to see the situation differently. Like my son did in the hospital. On Friday night he told me to ring the nurse to bring him hot chocolate, and he said that he doesn’t want to go home because it’s almost like staying in a nice hotel. I didn’t ring the nurse, after all I don’t think they have room service in hospitals, but next day when I told this story to the nurse, she laughed and said that last week one of their patients gave them four stars. It was the childrens’ ward so I’m sure they try to pitch in to make it a pleasant place so that the kids won’t be afraid if they have to come back. I have stayed in that hospital before when our younger son was born and it was really nice that time also. And to imagine that health care is free of charge here in Finland, well we do pay lots of taxes, but still. Hats off to Finnish health care system and the devoted hard-working people that work there!

Today I will embark on escapism by daydreaming of my future adventures. I have started already by spending the morning pinning my earlier trips on GoogleMaps. I got this idea from a blogger-trekker-friend Chris this morning when I was reading his blog. Lots of unpinned territories on my map, where to go next…? My mind is going to take me off this blizzard and this cold to faraway places now, have a wonderful weekend everyone!

p.s. Oh, and I have got more blogger awards, thanks so much Rebekah and Otto.