I'd like to share an incoherent thought or two on a subject that means a lot to me, as well as most of my fellow Finns. It's the concept called sisu. It means inner strength and perseverance. Please take a look at this Wikipedia article for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu

My life has never been easy but I'm still here, hanging on, sometimes sad and unhappy, but most of the time content and optimistic. "Against the wind", we say, when everything seems to fall apart around us. I'll never give up, and I hope you won't either.

On a remotely related theme, here's a painting called Lemminkäinen's mother. More on the painting from Wikipedia:

"Painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, depicting a scene from Kalevala, a Finnish epic poem. The warrior Lemminkainen had been killed, his body hacked to pieces and thrown into the dark river that flows through the underworld, Tuonela. His mother, having collected the parts from the river and sewing them back together, looks up to see a single bee bringing back honey from the halls of the god Ukko, a wondrous ointment that would bring her son to life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmink%C3%A4inen