Bruges is a picturesque city in Belgium, which my parents visited one year when they came to see us in London. I like this painting of a bridge with the horse and carriage going over it, but my dad, in true painterly fashion, has painted over this scene with his “Eternity” painting that I featured recently on my website.
What sorts of recycling and reusing are you doing these days?
The North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota is a special place. It forms the bottom part of the righthand triangle of the state’s outline and is a place for getting out in beautiful nature to camp, swim, rest, relax.
My dad’s painting depicts a lighthouse on the shore – a place of safety that provides light in the darkness.
Wherever you are today, may you find rest, safety, and light.
My heart warmed when I saw that today’s prompt for Five-Minute Friday was “hospitality.” I’ve written a few posts on the topic in the past, which you can find here.
Being an American in London, I’ve been able to host many a traveler passing through our wonderful capital city. Until some things happened in my family, and we had to pull up the drawbridge for a time. I felt bad when I could tell people were gently inquiring – without asking formally – if they could come and stay, and I didn’t respond with an invitation. And a couple of times I had to flat-out say “no” to the request.
But that was the right answer for that season, and after the tough thing of saying no, I felt relief. After all, exercising boundaries is healthy and good, even if hard. And when I intimated some of the challenges we faced, the people understood.
That season reinforced the notion of loving oneself as well as one’s neighbor, in Jesus’ great commandment. We often focus so much on the latter part of that command that we forget we need to extend hospitality to ourselves too. And, if we have them, to our children – a point that Leslie Verner makes in her lovely book Invited. After all, parents are only really hosting their children for a couple of decades before launching them out into the world.
What’s your approach to hospitality? Have you experienced seasons of openness and seasons of huddling together?
I am taking part in the #fiveminutefriday community. To write your own and link up with the other writers, you can do so here.
It’s a rainy day here in the UK, with people either snuggling up inside or donning the waterproofs (or yes, going to work). The cricket at Lord’s will probably be interrupted and carers of children across the land will long for sunshine.
I love this work of my dad’s with his abstract take on sea and sky and boats. (Or more probably a lake – I do need to get some artist’s notes from him! “Sea and sky” sounds more poetic, don’t you think?)
If you were to get into a boat today, where would you go? What type of a boat would it be? Would you get seasick?
Do you long for sunshine, or will you enjoy the rain today (if you receive some)?
By this time of the year, the pond where I like to walk along the Dollis Valley Greenwalk gets decidedly murky and green with algae. I stand by it and think of all that lives within and around it – the plants and insects and birds and ducks and perhaps even fish. All covered with a blanket of green.
What lies beneath the surface of what we wear on the outside? Do we don masks, covering the pain and insecurities? Can we be our true selves? For most of us, I suspect we do some of each.
How could you be more fully your true self today?
I’ve so enjoyed the sunsets of late. I’ve shared many of them on social media, but some not. God’s beauty spread over the skies for a fleeting moment… a reminder to soak in the sight with wonder, being fully present.
Here’s a painting by my dad of Lake Calhoun in Minnesota. There’s beauty around us, if we have eyes to see.
What has stopped you in your tracks lately as you’re struck by wonder?
I love this farm scene painted by my dad. To me it evokes the fields of grain, blowing in the breeze, under the wide Midwestern skies.
My memories of farm life from my paternal side focus on Waseca, Minnesota, where my grandma and great aunt lived, near neighbors separated by a wide open space.
Aunt Elin I only knew in her decline, as dementia started its slow ravaging on her fine mind. She’s one of the communion of saints I look forward to getting to know when we’re reunited, for she’s now fully herself, her mind restored and made new. She sacrificed her high-flying marketing career to return home to the farm to take care of her aging parents, both of her brothers having died before them. Her home was the place to visit for my dad and his siblings, for she owned probably the only black-and-white television in rural Waseca.
Grandma Boucher I knew much better, for she remained clear in her mind and lived into her nineties. She had survived her husband’s death when he was 41 from polio. He was fine on the Wednesday and died on the Sunday. A doting wife, she didn’t know the workings of the farm. The years were tough, and I can only imagine her grief and shock, a widow with four children. She had a gentle spirit and a loving heart, and I look forward too to hearing stories of God’s provision in those hard times.
Do you have stories from a farm? Stories of loved ones you’re looking forward to being reunited with?
Some years ago I thought I was listening to God when I decided to move halfway across the country to work for a different organization. Caught up in the delight of hearing God’s voice, I went overboard in my enthusiasm. I didn’t test out what I was hearing. I got it all wrong, and I was devastated. If that’s what hearing God lands me, I’m not going to speak to him, I thought, pain reverberating through my stomach.
But where else could I go? After months of feeling distant from God, I tiptoed my way back to him. Tentative. Heart worried and weary. Are you there, God?
Silence.
I was too afraid to hear that still, small voice. He was there, but I was fearful. And so I started off slowly and carefully. I began again to pray. I wasn’t looking for a direct line to God any more, but I didn’t want the feeling of distance to define my relationship with him.
Slowly, slowly, I started to trust again. I opened my eyes to other ways of God speaking to me – through his Spirit, through the beauty of creation, through the Bible.
And I realized that he had never been the distant one.
That had been me.
He was right there with me the whole time.
I am taking part in the #fiveminutefriday community. To write your own and link up with the other writers, you can do so here.
Summertime, summertime, and messing about in boats. Will you? Won’t you?
What could be better than sinking into a great read this summer? The days are long and I hope you’ve got some space and time to enjoy a cozy novel or to dive into a mind-expanding nonfiction book. To help you, we at Woman Alive have devised the 2019 summer reading challenge. It’s an easy and fun way to be more intentional about broadening out what you read this summer.
And please, if you haven’t already voted in the Woman Alive Readers’ Choice awards, please do so soon, as the closing date is 25 July. More details below.
So the reading challenge… Above is a bingo card with options of what you can choose to read this summer. Be a winner by filling in the squares along one row, including diagonally, or be a super winner by filling all the squares. One book counts for only one square, please! Start now and aim to finish by the end of August, for we will do a roundup starting in September. You could make your own bingo card for any kids in your life to give them a fun summertime challenge too.
Find more details, including a list of all the books featured in Woman Alive over the last year, at the Woman Alive book club Facebook group.
We are also super excited about the Woman Alive Readers’ Choice awards. Jackie Harris, the editor of Woman Alive, and I have curated the list from books that have appeared in the magazine over the past year, and there are 20 great books to choose from. Please note we would like a short review of the book you’re voting for. You can find full details on the Woman Alive website so please join in. Your vote will make a big difference!
Do share – what are you reading?