There was once a time when spring would not arrive. The ground was covered in snow and in the forest the snow drifted among the trees. It was beautiful to see but something was wrong. It was high time for spring to start its battle between winter and summer. But nothing happened. Winter was still there. One of the first flowers of spring, the one that used to light up the white, colorless snow landscape, was gone. It was she who opened her petals to welcome the sun and spring warmth. Last spring a little elf boy had seen the flower where it grew, but this year there was only snow in that place. The elf boy also knew that something terrible had happened before autumn came. One day it was as if the whole ground had shaken and as if the flower had fallen into the landslide. It was so terrible to see that the elf had to close his eyes. What if the flower had drowned in the soil masses? Since that day, the elf had cried many tears. He had collected all his tears in a bucket, and when the bucket was full, he had watered the place where the flower had fallen into the landslide.
Suddenly, two golden yellow buds appeared from under the snow. The flower thanked the elf for his persistent help with watering, but she also declared that she did not want to welcome spring. There were so many difficult things going on in the world that she didn't want to go on any longer. She said no one could ever imagine what she had seen and where she ended up after the landslide. She said that there were places where there fought in wars and that nature had started to protest. The elf understood how the flower felt because he felt the same. When the flower saw how the elf felt she opened her petals one last time to help give hope to all who at the moment, struggle to find a meaning in our lives. 

Eranthis hyemalis is called the first spring flower because it blooms so early on in the year.The flower is sensitive to temperature and opens in the sunshine but closes when it is cloudy. After the summer, the flower dies out and leaves no trace behind until next spring.

Right now, many children may feel worried because of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, developments in Ukraine, and climate crises and disasters. Sometimes you can think that children are not affected because they don't react the way we adults do. Unfortunately, several reports show that young people struggle with stress, anxiety and worry about the outside world and have lost hope for the future.

Access to clean drinking water and good hygiene systems is one of the biggest challenges of our time.