Beauty is an Invitation
to stop long enough to find the creativity and community we need.
I took this photo in my backyard in South Sudan 14 years ago.
It was there I learned that beauty and scarcity, loss and abundance, hope and overwhelming heartbreak could exist side by side.
That resilience looked like stopping to soak in a sunset, standing under a sky with a million stars, or sitting around a papaya tree sipping caucau with women whose lives redefined bravery.
Resilience looked like community that came together when the borders closed, the roads were blocked, the harvest failed, and the shelves were bare.
Resilience looked like doing what you could to prepare, not just so you could have enough… but so that you could help your neighbor.
Resilience looked like giving what you could and taking time to hear someone else’s pain, as well as their joy.
I left a part of my soul in that red dirt. There is a part of me that will never feel at home in the same way anywhere else. I can still smell the earth after the first rains blew in, ending the dry season.
This place shaped me and made me who I am today. I carry the gifts of their generosity and strength, courage, tenacity, wisdom, and laughter woven into my being.
My 7 years there were hard, but some of the happiest of my adult life.
Those years also shaped my understanding of creativity and how it can offer us strength and joy, and build resilience even in the middle of impossibly hard circumstances.
One big lesson. Beauty is an invitation.
It’s an invitation to pause. To notice. To embrace and be embraced by something so much bigger than ourselves.
Beauty invites us into creativity, as a skill we can practice. This creativity is a way of seeing and being in the world that can be learned and leaned into.
Creativity can be caught and fanned into flame.
It is born of courage and vulnerability and silliness and laughter.
The moment spaghetti sauce winds up on your nose and paint lands in your hair.
The moment the corners of your mouth turn up and your eyes brighten without you even thinking about them.
Creativity is nourished by curiosity and whimsy. It thrives in community.
It’s hiding in plain sight, waiting to be found.
What if you took a really wild risk and added celery leaves to that salad because you didn’t have parsley?
It’s waiting for you in playful experiments and new things and old treasures and memories sleeping in journals you forgot were there.
It’s patiently sitting in that photo album on your phone you haven’t looked at for 3 years because you are afraid it will remind you of loss.
And it might. But it might also remind you of a love that runs infinitely deeper.
Creativity is ready to greet you when you walk a different way home.
When you put bulbs in the ground just before the snow comes.
When you stop to admire a magenta crepe myrtle in Costco’s parking lot at sunset.
It’s there wherever you choose to learn a new skill or try a new kind of supply or go on a deep dive to learn about something just because you are fascinated.
Creativity is more than a way of “operating”. It is a way of becoming.
Creativity is our birthright. And it’s one of the most beautiful ways of being human.
It does not just live on one side of your brain. And it is not the sole domain of artists and poets.
Creativity belongs to all of us.
And we can, dare I say must, plunge into its depths to have what we need to build a better tomorrow together.
That’s what I hope for this place. A neighborhood of wonder and support that would make Mr. Rodgers proud.
The Wonder Habit™ is not only about doing art prompts or creativity challenges.
It’s actually a complete five part framework for thriving in uncertainty, and staying connected to ourselves, one another in the world around us.
Where (1) Curiosity leads us to (2) Connection that helps us find (3) Courage that is the beginning of (4) Creativity which opens us up to greater (5) Compassion.
I want to write you words that help you connect to the resilience and inner resources you need. To share the stories that illustrate and inspire.
And from time to time, talk about current events. Offering practical tips. Things I learned in a war zone a world away.
Wonder is not neutral. Wonder is resistance to all the things that would diminish our dreams or weaken our worth.
Not only as individuals, but as whole communities.
If my years in Africa taught me anything, it’s the power of community.
And that the lone, self-made hero who pulls themselves up by their bootstraps is largely an American myth.
Rugged individualism does not get us through prolonged periods of crisis or difficulty.
It just isolates us from the support we need found in community.
As we travel together here and I keep writing, I hope it feels like sitting with your favorite cup of tea or coffee under a tree with a group of friends who are ready to hold space for both joy and struggle.
A place where we can look out at the sunset, take a deep breath together, and know… regardless of what tomorrow brings, we are not alone.
You are a wonder my friend. And I’m so grateful you are here.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those of you who have subscribed and are supporting me to do this work. I can only do this because of your generosity. The Wonder Habit® isn’t only fun creative challenges, it is where I offer strength for the season we are in and write words to help us build a better story together.
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