Someone asked me recently: what’s one of the most peaceful photos you have?

This is it.

The Unwritten Rule of Cooking Breakfast

I cooked breakfast for the crew that morning. There’s an unspoken agreement when you do that — the cook gets a pass on the dishes. And I’ll tell you, that pass is worth more than it sounds.

Because it bought me something I didn’t know I needed: quiet.

Watercolors in a Normandy Garden

I’d made a sketch earlier. Nothing elaborate — just enough to capture the light, a reference point. When the kitchen clatter started behind me, I slipped out to the stone terrace, set up my palette, and got to work laying down color.

There’s a kind of meditation in watercolor. You can’t force it. The water goes where it goes. You guide, you suggest — and then you let go. On this particular morning, that felt exactly right.

Sacred Solitude Before the Jump

It happened to be a Monday. A quiet one, by design — because in a matter of hours, we were boarding vintage C-47s. The same kind of planes that carried the 82nd and 101st Airborne over these fields in June of 1944. And we were going to jump from them.

You don’t rush into that. You sit with it.

Painting was my way of settling. Of being still before the extraordinary. Of honoring the weight of what we were about to do by not filling every moment leading up to it with noise.

The Photo

MacBook open, brushes out, sketch pad in hand, roses blooming in the stone garden behind me. I didn’t pose for it. I didn’t know it was being taken. That’s probably why it’s peaceful — because I wasn’t performing anything.

I was just there.

FAQ

Where was this taken? Normandy, France — at the lodge where the group was staying during the D-Day commemoration trip.

What were you painting? Working from an earlier sketch — just getting the color down, a quick study. Watercolor is how I process quiet.

What happened after this photo? We boarded vintage WWII C-47 aircraft and jumped over the Normandy drop zones.

What is Miles to Go? Miles Spencer’s blog on entrepreneurship, adventure, creativity, and the moments worth slowing down for.

Author Bio

Miles Spencer is an entrepreneur, author, watercolor artist, and co-founder of Reflekta.ai. His books include A Line in the Sand and Havana Famiglia.