Deep breath friend. You made it.
Welcome to our kind and courageous corner of the internet, where we uncover the wonder hiding in small moments and simple joys, celebrate the beauty that blooms in pavement cracks and parking lots, and savor the quiet, good things growing at our feet every day.
In a world rushing fast & driving hard, where worth is defined by how productive we are, choosing being, wonder, kindness, creativity & intention is an act of artful resistance.
It’s time to root yourself in goodness. Be more creative. Feel less alone. Find wonder every day.
This is The Wonder Habit®, my best-selling Substack where I write about wonder and resilience, about slowing down to see and savor moments of everyday beauty we’d otherwise miss. And about finding our way home to ourselves and one another.
If you’re overwhelmed by all the noise in your news feed? Feeling drained and disconnected in the places you most want to be inspired? Lost in an online echo chamber, longing to find your center again?
Then, welcome friend. You are in the right place.
I’m Michele. I write words of courage and paint tiny, whimsical things. Lover of open roads, blank pages, and wild spaces.
I write from the stories that have left stretch marks on my soul and the beauty I have found along the way in unexpected places.
Because being brave is contagious.
That’s why I’m here… Carving a space for courage and connection to help you find the strength in simple moments of wonder and feel less alone along the way.
Wonder is an act of resistance to everything that would diminish our dreams or weaken our worth. And we’ve never needed it more.
See if any of these sound familiar:
➡️ You wish you could slow down in the middle of the rush and find a place to breathe long enough to get fresh perspective on all the things happening around you.
➡️ You want to feel more connected to your creativity, but feel stuck in the mud and overwhelmed instead.
➡️ You are looking for courage to meet the challenges of our day, but feel frazzled by the relentless noise and chaos in your newsfeed.
➡️ You wish you could harness inspiration to show up practically when and where you need it.
➡️ You're tired of feeling frustrated and disconnected from the things that matter most to you.
➡️ You want to live a more curious, connected, creative life… but right now the only thing you have energy to change is what show you’re binging on Netflix.
Yes? Then… You BELONG Here.
Maybe these times are a wild rollercoaster ride you didn’t sign up for.
*Taps screen* and you are tired of white-knuckling your way through the week.
Do I ever get it. January 28, 2018, I woke up after a car accident with what felt like a stranger's brain in my head.
Overnight, I became a writer who lost her words.
The first months of brain injury recovery were spent in a dark, silent room watching my life crumble around me.
I promised myself as it was all falling apart, that even if I had to learn language all over again, I would find better words than the ones I lost.
So I immersed myself in poetry, in small moments of beauty, and slowly, one line, one rhyme, one paint stroke at a time, my brain began to heal.
Wonder became the path back to myself and to depths of connection and creativity I could not have then imagined. And it saved my life.
The Wonder Habit™ is where I write about the practice of cultivating simple everyday moments that deepen our creativity and strengthen our wholehearted connection to ourselves and one another. It is a framework of building resilience in an uncertain world.
So Here 👏🏻 We 👏🏻 Are 👏🏻
And this ⬆️ is an accurate depiction of how I feel about it. 😉
Yes, that’s me. If we haven’t met, I navigate life with 3 legs (ok, 2 of them are crutches), 1 hip, and a 96.3% fused spine. No, that isn’t a super scary fifth-grade math word problem I promise.
I’m a creative to my core. Wandering along shorelines and through forests feeds my soul. My art and writing explore the connection, courage, and curiosity rooted in wonder as a daily practice, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of our unfolding stories.
And since this journey got started, my art and writing has been seen over 7.6 million times in 2 years.
The more stories I hear from you, the more I believe wonder can change the world. Especially here. Especially now.
What can you expect around here?
Wholehearted courage, practical resilience, creative prompts & more…
Start with a free subscription that has helped 11K+ creatives make wonder a habit ⬇️
With original writings & content that you can't get anywhere else.
In 2025, I'm making this Substack and writing my biggest focus from here on out.
Given the historical times we are currently living through, this is my way to take positive action sharing strength, beauty, inspiration, and kindness, as well as practical insights and practices for resilience-building.
I'll be writing about things like:
🎨 Building the courage & creativity we need as an act of resistance to anything that would diminish our dreams or weaken our worth
✨ Reflections on finding wonder in our daily lived experience.
🌱 Encouraging essays for growing strong roots
🪄 Sharing practical inspiration & resources for the times we are in. You don't have to figure this out alone.
📚 Sneak peeks at The Wonder Habit book I'm writing.
And you can have all this writing delivered to your inbox for free.
Save it, file it in a folder in your email, and it’s yours to read and refer to whenever you like.
But for less than a Starbucks run, you can also get VIP access to The Wonder Habit's entire archive of encouragement, wonder prompts, & all the creative resources in my signature creative community, Prompt & Ponder.
This includes:
💌 A fresh weekly Wonder Drop of gentle inspiration and thoughtful prompts delivered to your inbox every Sunday to help you connect with wonder and spark ideas for your journaling, reflection, and creative practice throughout the week. Starting Sunday, July 13.
📱 Year-round private member-only access to regular Substack chat threads where you can connect with one another and share your work in, what I like to think, is the kindest corner of the internet. Starting Sunday, July 13.
👩🏻💻 Quarterly live Zoom Creatogethers where we all bring what we are working on and enjoy some quiet co-creating space. Also coming in July…
🗄 Full, unlocked access to the Wonder Habit archives and a growing library of premium downloadables, past challenges, and over 500 creative prompts
📍 The Prompt & Ponder Dashboard where all the links live so you can easily find everything in one place.
💬 Access to the Conversation on all Substack posts to connect with the community.
✨ WANT MORE DETAILS? READ THEM HERE ⬇️
You also get to be part of supporting me to do this work and make this space possible. You are the reason I get to do this & I am deeply grateful. I believe that WONDER holds the keys to connect us back to ourselves, and to one another. It is a way forward to a better future. And it begins inside each one of us.
So welcome to a place where I hope you feel: Seen. Significant. Celebrated. Empowered.
Because you aren’t on the outside looking in. You are the first pick, not the last. You are invited into a space you don’t have to fit into because you already belong.
There’s a seat with your name on it at this table.
Your being and becoming are celebrated in this space. Because you are full of wonder and worth celebrating.
Say it with me: “Be more Creative. Feel Less Alone. Find Wonder Every Day.”
Wonder is your birthright. I can’t wait to help you discover more of it every day.
Questions? Please drop me a note ⬇️.
Other Places You Can Find Me
DMichelePerry.com, my fine art website where you can find all the latest on art collections, commissions, and studio behind-the-scenes.
Across social media @dmicheleperry
