The Sisterhood of the Enchanted Forest: Sustenance, Wisdom, and Awakening in Finland's Karelia by Naomi Moriyama & William Doyle

Author:Naomi Moriyama & William Doyle [Moriyama, Naomi & Doyle, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643136479
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

Light in Total Darkness

BY MID-NOVEMBER, FINLAND WAS RAPIDLY plunging into its winter abyss of darkness and cold.

Suddenly, the atmosphere of a pleasant Nordic autumn vanished, and shadows and mud slammed into Karelia like a freight train.

I was surprised to learn that many Finns have never fully adjusted to the reality of twilight falling early in the mid-afternoon, and some of them become gloomy at the looming prospect of four months or more of dark, cold days. But I saw many Finns stoically take the winter in stride. Workers commuted to their offices on cross-country skis. Many women walked briskly with Nordic poles.

In a climate like this, one cannot sit and wait for the winter to pass. Life goes on. I watched elderly people use walkers to venture to stores on snowy sidewalks from my kitchen window, providing me encouragement to keep on moving.

I was startled to see hundreds of Joensuu adults and children racing around the ice-packed, snow-packed streets and sidewalks of the city on bicycles, and somehow managing not to wipe out. Half the students in our son’s primary school got to school this way, even children as young as seven and eight years old, and they did it in temperatures of minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the city would host the annual Winter Cycling Congress, a niche event if ever there was one.

Winter was the time of year when I originally expected to feel miserable, push the eject button, and flee back to New York City. But with the help of my Finnish friends, I felt the opposite: completely relaxed and content in my home in the enchanted forest. The darkness and cold weren’t much worse than what I was used to in New York.

Because of the rural setting of the city, the darkness in North Karelia seemed authentic—there were few street lights and little artificial light pollution. In fact, it was pitch black. When I walked to pick up my son at his after school program at 4:30 P.M., I followed the local winter tradition of wearing a neon yellow vest with reflective silver lines across my chest over my winter coat. I knew someone was walking a dog across the street only because I saw a blinking light attached to the dog and the reflective gear of the owner. I noticed bikers only because of their headlights, which are required by law.

This is when I discovered the true meaning of light, the vivid effect of precious lights in an absolute darkness, and the significance of a candle service at church. All my life I lived in neon-and-artificial-light-filled cities. Lights over lights, almost canceling each other out. Manhattan was glittered with holiday decorations and lights this time of the year, and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was adorned with fifty thousand lights. The cityscape and the tree were beautiful, but it was a different kind of beauty. Light and darkness in North Karelia were more authentic, and their power seemed sharpened.

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