Äiti

April 19 was my dear mother's birthday. I didn't send her anything, nor did any of my sisters. We all called her that day and she laughed the fourth time she heard the same sentence: "Sorry ma, I didn't manage to send you anything.."
Mother's day is next week. So I took myself to the local flea market (my favorite) and found her some pretty, little things from there. I got her a soft cotton napkin with small lilac flowers, a book from the 1960's which was used in schools to teach the Bible stories with fantastic graphic design and illustrations and a small brass box where I put a few sweets. I also added to the package two boxes of traditional Finnish sweets that I know she used to eat when she was a girl: Pectus and Pax. Then I wrote a card ( I found the card from the flea market as well, as you can see it is an African batic print. The name of the art work is Mother and children, kinda fitting.) in which I wrote the first part of Lauri Viita's poem Alfhild. I only now realized it could be taken as an insult because the poem actually is about mother dying.. However the first paragraph itself describes the power and strength of a mother so beautifully that I doubt anyone could find it inappropriate.

Äidit vain nuo toivossa väkevät,
Jumalan näkevät.
Heille on annettu voima ja valta
kohota unessa pilvien alta
ja katsella korkeammalta.

I love my mom, sometimes I miss her so much!!