✨ 100 Days of Wonder | Days 1-20
🎉 Let's Get This Party Started! — CURIOSITY Days 1-20
Hey-hey Friends!
It’s finally here! Welcome to 100 Days of Wonder 2025.
If you haven’t read our introductory post about our journey together this year or downloaded the PDF project guide, you can catch at the link just below. This is a page you may want to bookmark. If your inbox eats up a project related post, I will be adding them there once they are sent out. This is an easy way to find all the things related to our group 100-day project. »
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On Choosing CURIOSITY Over Fear
“A creative life is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”
―Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
It’s quiet here right now. It’s the middle of the night when the rest of the world is still and sleeping.
I guess you could say I like the edges of things. If there’s a crowd, I’ll be sitting in a corner watching the room mingle. The head tilts and power moves. Who leans in for longer conversations that move beyond comments about charcuterie. How some move through the room like butterflies in a garden.
I watch because I’m curious, and the edges of things give me a perch to watch it all unfold. A thousand little stories spinning into place.
I used to be anxious in crowds. Sometimes I still am. Four foot nine with one leg and crutches. People miss me and trip over me at the same time.
Being curious has helped. Noticing the stories helped. Understanding the edges were not an exile, they were a superpower.
Curiosity pulled me through fear into creativity.
Curiosity is often found with a simple two word pause… I wonder……… this opens us up to whole new worlds of possibility.
I wonder if this will work. I wonder what the story behind that choice is.
I’ve also noticed that curiosity cannot operate at the same time as anger.
It is dang near impossible to hold onto anger or resentment when you allow yourself to be curious about the situation or person that sparked the outrage. Even when that outrage might be justified.
I mean, the next time you are mad. Try it. Ask a question. Get curious about the situation… see if you can be curious and mad at the same time.
Curiosity is an invitation to discover and grow, to excavate and explore. To play dress up and try on different dreams to find out which ones fit.
It is a gateway into awe and wonder.
As such, curiosity is the threshold into connection and the rest of The Wonder Habit®.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in my brain injury recovery began when I shifted from being furious to curious.
Instead of being livid that the feral creature inside my head refused to be tamed or play by my rules, I got curious about learning the rules she played by.
Instead of beating myself up for no longer being a speed reader, I leaned into intentional curiosity.
OK, I may not be a speed reader, but what could it look like if I was a deep reader?
Slow rivers run deep. Maybe there is a different kind of strength to be found slowing down, instead of gobbling down 800 words a minute.
Curiosity gives us the gift of being able to welcome even the hard parts of our stories home. It opens us up to insights we couldn’t find any other way.
Each of our first 20 one-word wonder prompts is related to curiosity. About diving deep, asking questions, learning and the beautiful things that happen as we stay curious.
Our One-Word Wonder Prompts, Days 1-20
You can use these prompts to watercolor, paper craft, bake, write… what ever creative expression you care to explore. But, I specifically curated them to be particularly effective as creative journaling prompts.
That being said… there is NO way to get this wrong. Seriously. You cannot mess this up. Not possible.
To make things a little easier, especially if you have never creative journaled before, I’m also including a little hint for some of the words to help you get going.
Certain words may speak to you more than others. You do not have to spend the same amount of time on each, or even do all of them.
If you feel stuck, here is my number one go to fast way to turn a word into a prompt…
If ____ were a color (or color palette), what color(s) would it be and why?
Then, mix that color (palette) on a page and write about the experience.
For our paid subscribers, you have a full extended prompt list you can find here at the end of this post.
Let’s jump in! I can’t wait to see what you create. Remember, if you share your posts on Instagram, tag them with #100daysofwonder2025 so we can find one another.
001 WANDER
If ____ was a landscape, what would it look like? (Fill in the blank with an emotion or experience)
002 PEEK
How might you create with layers that hide and reveal
003 INQUIRY
A story about an unanswered question
004 UNRAVEL
005 SEEK
006 GLIMPSE
007 MARVEL
008 DISCOVER
009 PUZZLE
010 YEARN
Something you’ve longed for.
011 QUESTION
012 TINKER
013 DIG
014 OBSERVE
015 EXPLORE
016 FATHOM
Things hidden in deep places.
017 DETECT
018 POSSIBILITY
019 GAZE
020 PONDER
I’m so thrilled you are here. And I am grateful to be part of this journey with you. You are deeply loved.
