It’s our first Wonder Drop Creative Deep Dive of 2025!

An Introduction to the 2025 Monthly Wonder Drops

Before we jump into our content, here’s a short roadmap of what you’ll find in these monthly creative deep dives for our paid subscribers.

• Each of our Wonder Drop Deep Dives will cover a topic related to wonder, creativity, creative practice, intentional living, art making, or other closely related topics.

• The Wonder Drop delivers written and video content that includes a blend of practical encouragement, tips, behind-the-scenes, prompts, and storytelling. Each one is a little different depending on what is being covered.

• The Wonder Drop will also include the link for our monthly paid subscriber LIVE Zoom Check-In and a curated list of favorite articles that came out on The Wonder Habit® over the preceding month or that are related from the archives.

In Our January 2025 Edition:

We are diving into creating a gentle intention-setting practice that works with our creativity and not against it. Including:

• The power of framing words.

• How to find and use a framing word of the year.

• Questions I ask myself about my creative practice for a new year. These are great journaling prompts.

• A chatty video where I share the behind-the-scenes of how I am setting my planning up to work with my creativity instead of overwhelming it and shutting it down.

The Power of Choosing a Framing Word for the Year

On occasions (like now ☺️), I will make a preview portion available to everyone.

In early January 2018 I sat with a pile of notebooks around me. Sketching, scribbling all the things that rambled through my head until I found the quiet space where I could listen.

We speak of choosing a word of the year, but sometimes I suspect the word chooses us.

My word for 2018 was openness. I dreamed up all that could mean. Open wide spaces. Growth for my business. Getting my life back.

It had been 5 long years of rebuilding after losing everything and returning from Africa. I felt like I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel.

Except it wasn’t the end of the tunnel. It was more like an oncoming train.

A few weeks later, I was a passenger in a car crash that damaged my writing and drawing wrist. Good bye calligraphy and wedding stationery business. And left me with a brain injury that took my words. Good-bye consulting, writing and everything else.

But you know the one word I held onto. Openness.

That the grief of loss would leave my heart bigger with more space than was there before.

I promised myself in those first months when my world was crumbling that if I ever built anything ever again it would be something I loved more than all I lost.

That I would find new words and become a better communicator.

That until I could do the things I loved, I would find others on social media doing the things I wanted to be doing and encourage them in their doing of them.

Everything in me wanted to shut down. And there were days I did. But then I opened up again.

These last 7 years have been brutal and beautiful and brutal again.

I lost my old words. But by staying open, I found my voice.

And it all brought me here to you.

K’ not crying. Actually, yes I am.

You know what? We did it. This space is something I love so much more than anything I did before the accident.

I have become a better communicator. By far and away. On so many levels.

I can trace the journey of the last few years through my framing words.

I call them framing words or framing phrases because they set a gentle intent I use to frame what the year brings my way.

Openness (2018) framed the empty space after such a profound loss of self.

Intent (2019) Rise (2020). I think I skipped 2021. I was just too tired.

Innovare (2022). It’s a Latin word meaning into-make new.

Praxis (2023) meaning practice. Emerge (2024). I did. WE did.

And now Savor (2025).

It’s a simple way to allow the unknown of a new year to be gently framed with hope.

Now we move on to some practical points on finding your word and/or letting your word find you. ☺️

Finding & Using Your Word of the Year

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Technically, it’s still December 1st in the next time zone over 🤣 as I wait for our video to process. If anyone wants to know, I’m already running on Minnesota time.

I accidentally film…

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Thank you for your patience.

I planned some things for this month and had them ready, but honestly, they felt flat given all the recent events globally. So today I hid in the studio and r…

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We have such a fun month ahead of us.

Are you ready for a super, special October filled with wonder? I sure am.

Sometimes I get fancy and make PDFs… Former graphic designer problems.

If you …

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What a journey we have been on! I am so deeply grateful for every single one of you... For your willingness to jump in as we’ve built this space together.

I could not be more excited to put t…

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After a summer of curve balls and tech changes, we are back in gear. Here’s what this week contains:

• VIDEO: We are leaning towards the slowly goldening edges of late summer with our water…

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The week and its end went a bit lopsided.  An extended family member passed away. And the news, while not unexpected, was a gut punch. Death is always a gut punch. My heart breaks for his children and those he left behind. 

Sometimes the only answer to loss and grief is sitting still in the moment and leaning into the gravity it contains.  Leaning into the silence instead of filling it with noise.

Wonder isn’t just about beauty found in beautiful places. It is also about the beauty that still lives in broken places that are hard and painful… about finding goodness amidst moments shattered into shards.

So yesterday I stood in my garden and stared at the sky instead of a computer screen. I pruned dead flowers so new life could grow in their place.

Wonder isn’t just about a creative practice, it’s also about creating space.

That’s one reason watercolor wind-downs have taught me so much about being present. Here are a few things I’m reminded of:

• As colors gently meander and mingle, perhaps the objective isn’t to be the fastest, but the fullest. Full of things that matter. Brimming with moments that have been savored and celebrated.

• If you want tiny details, paint slowly with an impossibly small brush. Precision cannot be rushed.

• Neither can real growth. In fact, growing slow with your art may be the very thing that allows you to grow out of fullness.  To sink roots deep into the earth of your story, and flourish from there.

• As I tell my watercolor students: color goes where water flows. When water is there, the pigment moves. We all need places that move us. That make a way for us to blend and expand, to transform and become.

I wonder what lessons you have been learning in your creative practice? What would a place that lets you flow and flourish look like to you?

Lessons in Awe from a 96-Year-Old Woman

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Can you believe it’s already August? When the hot summer days lean towards fall, the kids return to school, and we walk deeper into the second half of the year.

For me, August has…

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Ok can I just tell you how much I appreciate you?

I’m typing this on my phone because my laptop barely works because the battery has gone kaput. It’s only 10 years old.

But it gave no war…

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Is it just me or has this last week felt like a year?

I’m still playing catch-up after having schedules majorly disrupted due to Charlie being ill. Then it stormed all afternoon, which m…

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Happy long weekend if you are in the USA!

Am I the only one whose schedule and routines get thrown into the blender with a Thursday holiday in the mix?

Well, life keeps on keeping i…

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My apologies for this winging its way to you later than it usually would. We had a bad lightning storm here on Tuesday and my house sustained a direct hit that fried my internet modem.

I didn’t get service back till yesterday so I’m playing a good bit of catch-up.

But I am so excited because on Monday we are heading into July and our new wonder theme for the month, wildflowers.

Make sure to mark your calendars for Thursday July 18th at 7 PM EDT. We will be having our paid subscriber wildflower painting party on zoom! The week before, I’ll send out 3 images and y’all can vote which project you’d like to do together. Sound like a plan?

It is going to be so much fun. I can’t wait! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

I’m just so grateful for each and every one of you,

Michele

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✨ Prompt & Ponder

👩🏻‍🎨 PAINTING PROMPT

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It has been a tad quiet over here in terms of writing here right now because I am rewriting my entire website just for funsies.

Actually, because it was years out of date. I can…

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I wanted to give you a sneak peek of something I’ve been working on in the background for the better part of the month.

After a lot of playing with options post 100-Day Project,…

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1. Prompt & Ponder: A weekly create this in your style prompt, a real-time video of me creating from it, and some thoughts to ponder.

2. The Digest: It’s been busy in all of the b…

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1. Prompt & Ponder: A weekly create this in your style prompt, 3 additional prompts it could inspire, and thoughts to ponder.

2. The Digest: It’s been busy in all of the best ways…

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1. Prompt & Ponder: A weekly create this in your style prompt, 3 additional prompts it could inspire, and thoughts to ponder.

2. Let Me Introduce You to Our New Format I’m breakin…

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