SCENES FROM VILLAGE LIFE – BRUGES, BELGIUM

Hi! My name is Grandpa Allan. I like to use words to imagine what is and what might be. I have a friend. Her name is Beena (isn’t that a funny name? It makes me laugh, which is a good thing). She also likes to imagine things, but she likes to do that using paintings. So, we decided to imagine together. Each month, my friend Beena will send me a new painting and I will use the painting and my words to imagine all kinds of things. The only problem is that each painting tells 1,000 stories (kinda like they say a picture is worth 1,000 words, only better!) and my imagination is not that big . So, I will imagine one story each time my friend Beena sends me a painting and then you will need to imagine another story and pass the painting along to someone else (maybe you also have a friend with a funny name that makes you laugh, like me ) so they can imagine another story. That way together we can imagine 1,000 stories from each painting, maybe more!

Here is the first painting my friend Beena sent me for our collection. She calls it Scenes from Village Life – Bruges. Where did she come up with that village name anyways? Bruges, that’s a funny name. So this Beena friend of mine seems to not only have a funny name herself – she also likes to use funny names for the villages she paints – Crazy! Anyways, I went to the computer to check this village name out and it is a REAL village in the country of Belgium. I have never been to the village of Bruges but seeing how beautiful Beena’s painting of Bruges is makes me want to meet this village. Maybe one day after this weird virus they call a Pandemic is gone I can travel again and then I will go to Bruges. YES, that’s what I will do – I WILL GO TO BRUGES one day!!!

Now, please do not think that I am strange, but of all the beautiful things in this painting, the one that immediately caught my eye and my imagination (other than the bikes, of course, because I LOVE bikes!!) was the little boy all by himself at the very top right hand corner of the painting. That little boy caught my attention because he looks lonely, I think. It is hard to be a little boy sometimes and to feel all lonely. But I can tell that this boy is special, because even though he looks lonely, he also looks peaceful and strong. Yes, that is right, you heard me, you can be lonely AND peaceful AND strong all at the same time. Isn’t that something? I know that because when I was a little boy (that way a long time ago, but I still remember), I used to feel lonely sometimes. I used to feel lonely and it used to make me sad. But it also made me strong because I learned to live with myself and to feel peaceful by myself. That is an important lesson to learn. Not the kind of lesson your teacher or your parent teaches you, but an important lesson anyways.

Back to the boy in the painting. He’s looking at the two dogs down the road from him, isn’t he? I bet you he loves animals and that one day when he grows up he will live in a house full of animals. OK, maybe not FULL of animals, but with at least one, OK? No, no, one is too few – with at least two, OK? Maybe one dog and one cat or maybe with two dogs, a big one and a little one. Yeah, I like that best. Two dogs of different sizes. The big one will be a St. Bernard – that’s HUGE but fluffy. The smaller one will be a Labradoodle, yes, a labradoodle. I chose that in my imagination because it is another funny name – I like funny names if you haven’t noticed that yet .

Now it is your turn. What story do you see in this painting called Scenes from Village Life – Bruges? Think of it and then write it down. Oh, and then don’t forget to pass it on to a friend with a funny name so we can come up with 1,000 stories for this painting, together. See you next month!