”I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish enough ‘Hello’s’ to get you through the final ‘Good-bye’.”

Yesterday, we (Christa, her brother Cohen, their mom, Christa’s friend Frida, my sister Caroline and I) went to Särkänniemi, an amusement park in Tammerfors (aka. Tampere in Finnish) here in Finland. A great day, with lots of fun!

Being one of the largest (if not the largest, not sure… larger than Borgbacken in Helsinki, anyway) amusement parks in Finland, and having heard great words about the park in advance, my expectations on the park itself were high. A bit too high, unfortunately. There were some cool rides, and especially one roller coaster in which you lie down rather than sit was new to me. The others, however, were smaller versions of rides I’ve been to elsewhere (and as always when talking about these subjects, I can’t help but comparing things to the largest park in our part of the world: Heide Park in northern Germany).

But hey, don’t get me wrong now. Särkänniemi was great! And with good company, things always get even better still (no matter the size of the park). And good company I had. My sister and I have a tradition to make even the slowest ride a screaming adventure, and with all the others being like-minded, everyone joined in on the fun. With such an enhanced and energetic atmosphere, who cares if the only ride is a small carousel (which obviously wasn’t the case her, tough 😛 )?

Add to this my recent interest in doing random acts of kindness, something which was frequently done yesterday. It all started when we were screaming on the top of our lungs at ”the ship” (you know, the Viking ship that swings back and forth), followed by a round of applause once the ride was over (seriously, the ride isn’t that exciting, but we wanted to cheer everyone else up who looked bored on the ride). The result of our sore throats: a laughing and well-entertained ride operator. After that, it became out goal to spread joy to all the otherwise seemingly bored employees of the park.

Here’s a list of all the people we made smile:

1. ”The Ship” operator – The guy who started it all! We raised our arms and screamed in a crowd of ”boring Finns”, he gave us a laugh and a smile in return.
2. Pizza place employees – While waiting for our orders at a pizza place, we placed our numbered signs (those used by the staff to get the correct order to the correct table) on top of each other. The signs (we had three of them) were rather large, so the tower was tall. Most of the staff walking past looking for the number related to the order they were carrying gave us a smile and a quiet giggle as they eyed the signs looking for their number (while others gave us a weird look). Even though that wasn’t our goal (the tower was build solely for our own pleasure while waiting), it surely must count as making someone’s day a tad bit more interesting.
3. Second operator of ”The Ship” – While the first one started it all, the second one (a shift later) was the one benefitting the most from our actions. This time we really tried to ”make his day”. And I believe we succeeded. More screaming and applauding, this time even when we weren’t on the ride ourselves. We also asked him to pose with us and have his picture taken with us, which further added to the fun. As we left, he waved, and later in the day when he left to go home he was smiling and waving at us even though we weren’t riding the ship any longer. And hey, the other park visitors being (un)fortunate enough to be on the ride the same time as we also got themselves a good laugh.
4. Woman at the ”pull a string, win every time”-stand – We all went to this win-every-time stand, looking casual like any other customer. Caroline bought a round, and the rest of us were watching as she picked a string and pulled it. As the prize popped up, we all started applauding and cheering her! The woman working by the stand got herself a surprise, especially as Caroline bent forward to hug and thank her. Of course, this was all planned. The woman appeared happy and laughed and smiled. So what was the actual prize? A small, useless dolphin, which we later gave to the above mentioned ship operator. Money well spent.
5. Water ride operator – Another one of our planned actions involved an operator by a water ride. The plan was to give her a hug after the ride, which we all did. The operator, however, looked more scared than pleasantly surprised. When we asked if we could take her picture, she refused. Still, she did smile, and as the park was closing later on and we passed her as she was leaving her station, she did give us a shy smile of recognition. I bet we still made her day a tad bit different!
6. Candy woman – Caroline had the idea of buying candy only to give it to the person you just bought it from. We tried this and went for a ”get six candy bars for 2€” offer. One of the bars went to the woman we bought it from, and she did look genuinely happy and positively surprised. She did, however, ask us not to publish the picture we took of her on the internet. So I won’t.
7. Bus driver – A kind female bus driver with surprisingly good English took us from Särkänniemi to the train station. She was the first to receive one of the five remaining candy bars. Another positive surprise followed by a genuine smile.
8. Singing hippies – By the train station, two girls were sitting on the pavement singing along with a radio. It sounded dreadful! However, they looked happy and their spirit affected everyone passing them, so we decided to give them a candy bar. We also took the opportunity to comment on their ”lovely singing”. As we left, we heard them talking and laughing, most likely about what had just happened.
9. Ticket conductor – On the train, we gave the ticket conductor another one of our candy bars. She (surprisingly many female workers in the field of public transportation) appeared puzzled at first, not really understanding what we were giving her, but later she thanked us as it all became evident to her. Perhaps not the most thrilled person of the day, but still she did give the next traveler whose ticket she asked to see and extra welcoming smile.
10. Ourselves – On our journey of spreading joy to others, we ourselves were probably the ones benefitting the most from it all. It’s great how someone else’s happy reaction to your actions can make you feel a lot better!

So there you have it. A great day, with many great smiles. Särkänniemi will never be the same without us 😀

Packing before moving means you first spread everything you own everywhere in the house, until you can’t walk from one end to the other. I believe we’re about to reach that rather chaotic stage now.

Today I went through all of my games. Here are the approximate numbers:

• 50 board- and card games
• 15 decks of complete standard playing cards (and almost just us many incomplete ones)
• 25 standard dice (1-6) and a whole lot of ”special” ones

Up for a game of Twister? Sorry, that’s not part of my inventory.

I’ve long liked the world wide phenomenon of ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ where you simply do kind stuff to strangers. However, once you leave the computer screen (where you can read tons of stories of what kind things people have done), it all gets forgotten, and when an opportunity presents itself, you rarely actually do something. Your mind is simply elsewhere.

To solve this, here are 7 ideas that I’ll force myself to learn by heart, so I can remember them in case I ever get the chance to perform them 😛

1. Give/lend an umbrella – I once read about someone who saw a woman and her many children (don’t remember the number, but they were more than just a couple) standing in the rain waiting for the buss. This person, suddenly struck by a flash of kindness, immediately went to a store close by and bought one umbrella for the woman and one for each of her children. Now, I’m not saying I need to do that some day, but I am saying that when you stand there, with your own umbrella in hand, it isn’t too hard to offer someone else to share the umbrella with you until the bus – or whatever – arrives.

2. Carry groceries – Maybe there’s an old lady in need of getting to her car at the other side of the parking lot, or someone who lives nearby but must still walk quite a bit. I’d take the time to help carry the bags. The only problem might be the fear of me being a thief 😛

3. Give a policeman a helium balloon – I stole this idea from a book: Random Acts of Kindness: 365 ways to make the world a nicer place. I have no idea what it’s for, but I’d bet the policeman would be thrilled to have to carry a balloon around at work all day 😛 Oh the things we do to please others…

4. Kind words – When passing a stranger on the street, why not give them a compliment?

5. Hug a stranger – This is one of my favorite ideas! Hugging someone who’s just standing there, perhaps accompanied by a few kind words, would be cool. Alternatively, the hug could be given when you’re in the situation where you walk towards each other on the street, and both try to go the same way to avoid each other. Instead of stopping and figure out what way the other will actually go, you can just hug the person. Problem solved 😛

6. Applaud someone who’s made an effort – Even if the effort was worthless.

7. Be generally kind – I’ve helped mothers get their strollers on to the bus, and I’ve assisted people who have stumbled on the street, asking them if they’re alright. But you never can do to much of these small but kind acts, so I’ll continue not to be the guy who just stands there to watch in the futre as well…

Finally, here are the long awaited images from the graduation a while ago 😀

I’m so jealous of people who can believe strongly in something regarding the questions we all seek, but only a few find the answer to. Of course, we all have our views, opinions and thoughts on how we came to be, why we are here, and what the meaning of life is. And by no means do I think someone has all these answers (or even think they have all the answers). But there are plenty of people who are closer than the rest of us.

Whether it’s a dedicated Muslim, a monk at a remote location, a person with strong faith in the Bible, someone with great spiritual experiences, or someone with a strong heart in what we call science, these people all claim to have found the ”truth”. But in the end, aren’t we all just simple creatures driven by curiosity and a hunt for answers? Aren’t all these theories out there just a result of our own unawareness and lack of knowledge?

While I do admire anyone who strongly believes in what they’ve discovered, there is one kind of ”believer” I look up to even more; the one who is the only one in the world with her belief, and who has no desire at all to let anyone know of this. The person who truly thinks he knows the truth, lives by it and is experiencing a sort of ”wholeness” as a result, yet is fully satisfied with not spreading the word, or even feeling the need of fellow believers with faith in the same idea. I don’t know anyone like that, but then again, the point is that they don’t care if I do or not, and thus they haven’t told anyone.

But does anyone know the truth? Probably not. But their state of mind while thinking they do is enough for them to completely ignore everything else and live life fully, and that’s all it takes to have found the ”personal truth”. Anyone with such a strong faith has found the truth, even if none of them have the ”correct” answer.

In other words, I doubt anyone actually knows the truth. But I sure am jealous of those who think they do.