For those of you who don't understand Finnish, that is, the language of Finland (not the people ;), I will translate the topic of this entry: Viimeiset veneet = The Last Boats. This is the name of one of my favorite songs, and it tells about life in a way that touches my heart and awakes my longing toward the heavenly home.
Yesterday evening I was humming this song by myself after a long while and the idea came to blog about it. As the song has 5 verses altogether, I think each verse is worth an entry, thus here comes the first one.
Before going into details, as an intro, the composer of the music Lasse Heikkilä has also written the lyrics, and the song was introduced in a "Finnish Mass" (suomalainen messu), kind of church service of songs. Later I hope to link some introductory page for you who don't know the piece. The music of the song is nice and very Finnish, though it is more the lyrics that has touched me the most.
The first verse goes like this:
1. Viimeiset veneet kun palaavat rantaan, illaksi kääntynyt päivä on.
|: Piirretään vielä hei sydämet santaan, valvotaan vierellä nuotion. :|
Rough translation to English:
When the last boats have returned ashore, the day has turned to eve.
|: Hey, let's draw hearts into the sand, let's stay up around the camp-fire. :|
This verse always brings into memory my first Summer outreach to Russia. It was year 2000 and at the end of Summer, I joined a small group and went to Saint Petersburg area to stay a week or two in a children's Summer camp. There we spent time with the kids and their group leaders. I didn't know any Russian, I knew only one person in the outreach team beforehand, and I had just finished my High School and moving into a new city (Tampere).
The outreach went well, I got a spark to learn Russian, and continued with these outreaches for the following few Summers. During the last night of the trip we went out to the forest by the river with the local group leaders and some kids. We had a camp-fire, roasted bread and potatoes (I think so), played guitar and listened to Russian camp-fire songs... It was a memorable evening. Later in our own evening prayer time we listened to this song, The Last Boats. The camp-fire in Russia and the songs, the dusk of forest, the sunset, the smell of local life, the peace and quietness... I have come to miss those moments, I have come to treasure those moments.
How great it would be if we can always stay up late, always "draw hearts into the sand", always have the company of friends around a camp-fire and just be. No need necessarily to talk anything, no need to pretend, no need to play guessing game around life. Just the presence of friends, solitude, camp-fire, timelessness. Hear the sounds of water hitting the shore, occasional breath of wind, dancing of the trees and their shadows, dancing of the tongues of fire around the wood, stars above, tree roots below, a sense of unworthiness at the vast splendor of the creation.
These feelings are what the song brings to me when I'm sitting in our living room sofa with guitar in my lap and eyes closed. Once again I experience the nature, the solitude, the reality of life outside of the small box of my daily routines.
This was the first verse, and there are more to come. Gratitude arises alongside the texts I'm typing into this entry, thank God for gifted people who honor Him with their talents and heart. Thank you Lasse.