It has been relatively busy weeks lately, not because of teaching, supervising, and all administrative stuff, but also in personal life. Anyway, this week Finland was once again (9th time in a row) ranked the happiest country in the world in the United Nations' World Happiness Report 2026. Well, I have many reasons to be professionally happy this week, as the Sigrid Juselis Foundation grants were published. Like I already said, words fall short when trying to express the deep gratitude and trust placed in our work. The Sigrid Jusélius Foundation has been one of the greatest and long-lasting supporters of our research for many years, and we are truly thankful for their continued confidence in what we do!
Nevertheless, the world's happiness nation statement makes you repeatedly wonder what is so special about us, after all, the polar nights get us quite depressed during the wintertime (now the daylight starts to be ok for normal people), but then again, soon we start to complain as it is too bright to sleep during the nights... 😂 Today, I also felt some kind of hapiness about the things that works nicely in our society, especially if you are unexpectedly left alone with the kids. Although the Finnish healthcare system has gone down, I must admit that we have received really good care. Of course, it is easy to say when you are living next to the university hospital, but still, as a single parent, I cannot complain at all. I'll take with gratitude all the help we can get and visit the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) over the lunch break, if needed. So if you have wondered, where the h... I have been all the time, in the hospital, probably more during the past 6 months than ever in my life... and still, we are just fine (routine operations)! And what I have learned during the past rough years, grief is not the opposite of happiness.
