is a new article series here in Journeys of Life. It can entail most anything, and is really about creative writing - as opposed to some other article series here. The publication date will be the 8th of each month. The When can be a beginning of a question sentence, or a story that follows. These stories will typically be short ones, but can be long-reads as well.

So we always start with When, and go on from there. Guest writers are particularly welcome in this series!

Let us start with when

I was a little girl, my birthdays at the end of November here in Helsinki, Finland were always snowy. The winter had definitely come, it was almost December, and Christmas was just a few weeks away.

These days, not so. It’s still the end of November, almost December, and Christmas is still a few weeks away. But there is seldom any snow on the ground, not even in December. The older I get, the more I can appreciate that fact, not needing to worry about falling on slippery pavements. But like many of us, I also worry about the one phenomenon behind these changing circumstances - climate change. I much rather have the snow, slush, sleet and ice than the uncertainty of what’s going to happen with us all.

It is much more fun to wade in snow than seeing less and less of it, even if tropical summers up north can at first acquaintance be such a delight.

It is more desirable to walk in slush than having to drink some weird protein slushies made of concentrates easily distributable to most parts of the world when traditional food is getting scarce.

It is less painful to endure sleet than having to endure shortage of water, a circumstance of life for so many since ages, but a pretty new thing for many of us.

It is much less hazardous to slip on the ice than have all the polar ice melting. The polar bears in the Arctic, the penguins on Antarctica, and all the rest of us deserve better.

A polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jumping in the pack ice in Svalbard, Norway.

Updated 8.12.2019