Blog

  • Five Minute Friday: Unfelt Needs (#FMF)

    A writing friend encouraged me to join the #fiveminutefriday clan with writing for five minutes (yes, it’s self-explanatory) on their prompt. Here are my thoughts on what we need. Have five minutes and want to join in? What do I think of when I hear the word needs? What pops into my head is felt…

  • Weekly Watercolor: Beauty or weed?

    The wild grasses sway in the wind, shimmering against the sunshine. Some think pampas grass is beautiful, while others see it as an invasive weed that is difficult to remove. Sales of the plant have fallen in the UK with the cultural connotation of the plant in the front garden being an invitation to swingers…

  • Forgiveness Fridays: Forgiveness, Martin Luther and Jonah by Michael Parsons

    With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation next week, I thought it appropriate to feature a post on forgiveness and Martin Luther, written by one who knows a lot about the reformer, Michael Parsons. He also was my editor for The Living Cross, and was one of my three readers for my MA dissertation on…

  • Watercolor Wednesday: The movement of autumn

    We’re having a taste of summer this week on a quick trip to Spain, but I know elsewhere the Fall feeling is in full flow. My dad sent me a few new watercolors for the season this week, and I love the movement he captured in this one. I suppose the meaning of the movement…

  • Weekly Watercolor: The Colors of Autumn

    We don’t get as many glorious colors in the autumn here in the UK as in Minnesota, so for today I soaked in the yellows and golds as I walked by the brook (as I documented on Instagram), and will enjoy the reds and oranges of the land of my birth via my dad’s art.…

  • Waiting – a poem

    Waiting. We all do it, like it or not. Sometimes the waiting is tinged with celebratory anticipation, such as for the birth of a baby. Often it’s surrounded in heartache, with echoes of, “How long, Lord?” Sometimes it surrounds the mundane, such as being stuck in a stifling Tube carriage waiting to exhale. What are…

  • Weekly devotional: Light and dark

    “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for…

  • Forgiveness Fridays: Forgiving my abuser; forgiving my accusers

    Today’s post tells the story of heartache and pain, but new life after forgiveness. In the light of all of the current news about abusers and the women who suffer from them, it feels timely. The writer, who asked not to be named, suffered not only at the hands of her husband but by those…

  • Watercolor Wednesday: Blood and tears

    Today’s art by my dad, Leo Boucher, is a watercolor I shared back in Lent. It seems appropriate to ponder it again today as we consider the latest atrocity. The blood from the hands of Jesus looks to me to be tears – the tears of a God made man who wept and died for…

  • Watercolor Wednesday: A Bridge to Where?

    I got to visit my niece in Minneapolis today, and saw some of my dad’s artwork that I hadn’t seen before, such as this acrylic on glass (painted on the backside of the glass). I love the slightly abstract view of the bridge from behind the safety of the guardrail. What bridges lie in front…