Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time: 10:13 PM

So I just got home from having my hair cut. -.- Now... I'm the type of girl who typically likes things like clothes, make-up, nail-polish, perfumes, hair care products ect. BUT :c I don't like getting my hair cut!!!

I was thinking about it on the way back home ... my dislike of hair cuts that is.. and I remembered that at one point I didn't dislike hair cuts. : D Why? Because my hair dresser at the time was a good looking man LOL x) But :c my mom had to go and ruin it by telling me that he @.@ wore lip gloss. Now... either he was busy doing something else then just cutting hair and THATS how he got the lip gloss on.... or he applied it himself. =.= Sadly the second seems more likely.... any way I don't go there anymore so -.- no need to feel sad that women all over the world have one less good looking man to choose from.

What I actually wanted to blog about was something that I thought of on Wed as I listened to Ven. Dr. Anuruddha talk. I thought of my most perfect memory... you know the kind of memory I mean.. the kind that seems utterly out of this world -.- almost more dream then reality. Mine goes as followed.

The last time I went to Finland was many years ago... during the summertime. We only stayed for about two weeks spending most of the time in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, but.. we went out to the country side to visit my Grandpa and his wife who had rented a small cottage for the summer. Renting a place away from the city is a very common Finnish practice during the summer time.. and when I was younger my family used to rent a cabin out in the woods and spend a few days or even weeks there.

It's hard to describe how peaceful it is out in the woods ... its as though the rest of the world has stopped... as though time standing still for you. The only sounds you hear are those of birds chirping in the trees.. of the wind as in gently rustles the leaves and the water if your fortunate enough to find yourself close to a river or the ocean.

It was to a place like this that my Grandpa and his wife had retreated too and where they invited us to come spend the day. We drove through wheat fields on old dirt roads.. through roads leading through woods until we finally came to the little cabin they had rented. A really small place.. perfect for two people but a little crapped for the 8 of us to be in at once, so us kids jumped into our swim suits and made our way through the forest bare foot to the water.

The water wasn't the sea.. it was river. So there were plants growing along the shore and the water was cool and dark with a rocky bottom. Swimming in a river is totally different from swimming at the beach or in a pool. The water is fresh.. and soft. And you can hear the plants being swayed by the wind around you. There was small floating dock leading out into the water and we walked along it and climbed down the little later into the water. Swimming and splashing and ... well the rest of the story isn't mine to tell but lets just say an important part of clothing was lost and the person who list it refused to come out of the water until a towel was brought much to the amusement of the rest of us. Then after swimming our parents called us to come back to the cabin and we made out way back through the woods up to where the adults were.

Our grandpa had heated up the sauna for us while we were swimming. Not one of those electric kinds but the real old fashioned kind where you have to put wood inside... wood my grandpa had cut earlier in the day. I remember my dad went out and made a whip thing out of birch branches.... I don't know how to describe it or what its called -.- but its basically birch tree branches tied together. And then you hit your skin with it to make the blood flow faster. LOL we had so much fun with that thing.. playfully hitting each other while Oscar informed us that because hes "American" he hates the sauna and he hates the heat.

Then my grandpa took the boys fishing while my daddy, Iida and me went to take the old row boat we found pulled up on shore for a test drive. LOL so much fun rowing in that thing. Seeing other people further down the river swimming and splashing. Then when me and Iida tried to steer we accidentally crashed into a bunch of plants growing in the water along the shore and our Daddy scolded us a bit. Then we rowed back to shore and the feast that awaited.

My favorite part about Finland besides the fact that I find the nature there so beautiful is the food... and not just any food but the bread. Finnish rye breads is in my mind the best bread in the world. And after the bread comes the fish. Fish and bread... I could live of those two thing. Those and berries which we can pick in the woods during certain times of the year.

I was happy truly happy that day enjoying the company of my family and I didn't want to leave... but eventually the time came for us to head out and saying good bye to our grandpa and his wife... we packed ourselves into our car and started the long drive back to where we were staying. It was when we came out of the woods and onto the dirt road that went through a wheat field that I saw what I still consider to be one of the most beautiful events I've had the fortune to witness.

I saw mist...Flowing over the road... over the wheat. I saw the sky alight with shades of red, pink, and yellow painting everything around us in those shades... even the mist. I can't describe it in words.. because words aren't enough. But in that one moment t I felt... more calm and peaceful then I've ever felt and i realized... that no matter how bad things are.. how bad things get.. there is still beauty in the world. There is still goodness. I want to paint what I saw one day.. because I still have that picture in my mind so clearly. I still remember how my whole family seemed to quiet down ... and just enjoy.

That's my perfect day... -.- my writing doesn't do it justice... but I hope you get at least a little glimpse of what that day was like for me. That memory isn't a place I return to often.. I just think about it sometimes and smile.

Then came my favorite part of visiting Finland... the food! The bread especially. The best bread I have ever had has always been Finnish bread. The really thick and dark rye breads. A