For the love of a horse…
Today, why not ponder the amazing creatures God has given us to enjoy – horses, dogs, cats, and so many wild creatures. They can enrich our lives through their love and service.
What’s your favorite animal?
Tag: Leo Boucher
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Weekly Watercolor: The gift of an animal
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved. -
Watercolor Wednesday: Pausing to breathe and wonder
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Pause for a moment and breathe. Imagine you’re on a calm lake, and the sun will soon set. Hints of the glorious colors the sky will morph into in moments appear, the pinks and reds beckoning. You inhale the sweet scent of calm, wanting to enjoy the moment, reveling in the wonder of God’s creation. You let your cares fall away, even if for just a short slice of time. You whisper a prayer of thanks, that God has given you this gift of being, of enjoying, of wonder.
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Watercolor Wednesday: Embracing autumn
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Autumn can take me by surprise. Maybe part of that relates to us enjoying the school holidays and then returning to work and school routines with a bang. At least that’s how it was this year, with us going in quick succession over the summer to Minnesota, then a spell at home, and then Wales and Spain, returning the night before school started the next morning. We had reasons for the packed travel schedule, and I knew it would be good but taxing in its own way. And it was.
So from hot and sunny Spain back to the UK with its days of sunshine morphing into wind and rain. A quick landing as we settled our youngest into her new secondary school, and then the surprise at the end of the first week hearing she’d been given a place at her favored secondary school and the ensuing change. The dust seems to be settling as the days begin to draw in.
Autumn – and winter – will come, whether or not we’re ready. What do you need or want to do to welcome the season?
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Watercolor Wednesday: Reflecting on summertime life
By Leo Boucher. Shared with permission; all rights reserved. Time on a boat affords much thought, if you’re a solitary rower like the one in this painting by my dad. As we turn to autumn, why not take some time to reflect over your summer. What were some highlights? Lowlights? How did you react to them? How did you sense God moving in and through you during the highs and lows – and all the times in between? As you take some time to reflect, consider what speaks to you in the painting.
For me, summer involved travel. Times to see loved ones making new and precious memories; times to experience new places and sights; times to remember that as physical beings, we get tired and hungry and need some down time. The tree stretching across the water tells me that God erects a shelter over me, to provide relief from the baking sun and reminds me to sink my roots deeply into the rich soil, that I might access his living water.
How about you?
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Watercolor Wednesday: Summertime activities
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Summer can be a time for tourism, with people indulging in things that they wouldn’t do at home – like taking a ride in a horse-driven carriage. Does this sound like fun to you?
What I like about this watercolor by my dad is that it’s a study for a more involved painting. I like the spare strokes and white space. How can you fill your life with more white space?
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Watercolor Wednesday: Summertime scenes of beauty
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved. Have you eased fully into summer? We’ve had the longest day, and the 4th of July, and for Americans it may feel like half of the summer is over. Yet my kids aren’t even out of school yet! So our official summer holidays aren’t here yet, but soon and very soon will be.
Today I’m looking at this painting by my dad of what may be a river in the Midwest of America as I think about fresh water and warm evenings and beautiful, colorful skies.
Do you have scenes of beauty before you?
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Watercolor Wednesday: Time to refresh
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved. Soon I will go to Spain, to the lovely El Palmeral, where I’ll be leading a retreat when we delve into the book of Colossians. Such a lot to explore in just 95 verses! The incomparable Christ, living in Christ, living for Christ.
I’m sharing this painting of my dad’s today as I think about Spain, for I love the colors he uses. Although the Mediterranean climate means for a lot of brown, when I think of Spain I think in color – the vibrant bougainvillea and other flowers, the glimpses of glory painted in the sky as the sun sets. And as this painting shows, time to sit by some water and reflect and converse, enjoying God’s glories and each other.
If you can’t make it to a led retreat at El Palmeral, you could enjoy what they call a time-out retreat. You craft the time as you wish, such as the daily Celtic prayer in the outdoor chapel. Those who go, want to come back!
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Watercolor Wednesday: Soaking up city culture
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission. All rights reserved. It’s that time of year when many Americans come to Europe for vacation/holiday, and the time when I see on social media the many graduations and proms. Schools are generally out now across the pond, while my kids have well over a month left of the daily grind. I remind myself of our regular breaks in the school year – the two weeks at Christmas and Easter, and the three half-term breaks of a year. It all evens out in the end. But I do remember fondly that feeling of the last day of school, with the long three months stretching out in front of me. I had the chance to get bored.
And so in the spirit of the season, today’s painting is of a European city with throngs of visitors – I’m thinking this might be Prague, but will have to ask my dad.
What holiday plans do you have? Any city breaks planned?
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Watercolor Wednesday: The value of work
By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved. My parents both grew up on farms in the Midwest of America. Both learned the value of work, that continual work wrought by cows that need to be milked every day and animals fed and watered. They instilled in me the satisfaction of a job well done, whether a clean carpet or a writing project. I sometimes fear I am too soft on my kids in comparison – will they too love to work?
Yes, work has been affected by the fall of humanity, where now we will toil and labor with sweat and pain. But humanity was to subdue creation before the fall, so we can infer that work can be good and meaningful. We’ll always live in that tension of living in a world that is made for beauty and enjoyment but one affected by sin and disease, and our relationship with work reflects that tension.
What’s your view of work?
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Watercolor Wednesday: Stopping to pause
By Leo Boucher. All rights reserved. Just a few brushstrokes and a painting is born. I don’t have the confidence to paint in this way, but I appreciate others who do.
Flowers bring beauty into our days, as we stop to pause, breathing in their scent and taking a moment to reflect. I often post photographs on my Intsagram feed of flowers and other things in creation as a discipline of seeing and noticing beauty.
What have you seen today?