The Four Domains of Whimsy
The Cloverview, On the Wonder-Led Life. Also— 100 Days of Wonder | Prompts for Week 12
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This week has been a time of revisiting things. Revisiting loss. The kind that claws at the inside of your breast breast bone and kicks against your rib cage longing to break free. Revisiting love. The kind that seeps into your DNA and rearranges it so you can never be the same.
When things get hard, I lean harder on whimsy and wonder. I sometimes imagine them as Anne Shirley and Luna Lovegood wandering arm-in-arm in an enchanted forest where the trees tell stories and grow stars in their branches.
Whimsy isn’t abstract. It all but demands to be embodied in the real world. I think that’s why I love Anne Shirley so much. I was a 9 when Megan Follows made her debut in the beloved Anne of Green Gables. My mom almost didn’t let me watch it because she was afraid it would give me even more ideas than I already had.
Yes, I was the child who read under her blanket and got scolded for bringing Nancy Drew to the dinner table. The lake of shining waters and the depths of despair became permanent parts of my vocabulary. And I began to recite poetry out loud because I loved how the words felt when I said them. To be fair, my mama was pretty dang whimsical herself.
Our Week 12 Prompts ⬇️
If you are new, here are the links for the rest of the 100-day prompts so far: https://wonder.dmicheleperry.com/t/100-days-of-wonder-2026
More recently, I’ve thought of the powerful agency whimsy gives us as having 4 domains—like the 4 leaves of the clover. 🍀
TEND: Embracing tiny ways to add care in my everyday, very ordinary life.
ROOT: Connecting to what grounds, anchors, and nurtures me
PLAY: Making and exploring all the corners of my creative practice without pressure.
GROW: Developing my inner world. Leaning into writing, learning, and reflection.
Here are 4 images that share some main ways I whimsify my real-life world. I find it so helpful to have a starting place.
And every so often I still tilt my head to one side and think… what would Anne Shirley do in a situation like this?
On grief, gardening, and what it means to come alive.
I spent the last few evenings pulling the dead things out of my garden. The dried bones of plants that once bloomed vibrant shades of viridian, emerald, and terra verte, now reduced to their skeletal…
I’m so incredibly grateful for you being here. For your comments and support and restacks… and all the ways you are pivotal in building this community together.
Love from the bottom of my heart,
Coming to our Prompt & Ponder members this week:
Our first studio storytime video and coffee chat where I dive into more of my story and why I find whimsy so powerful.
The audio version of me reading On grief, gardening, & what it means to come alive.
A few hand selected visual reference images for creative inspiration.
Our subscriber chat where we share what we’re working on!
A very good analogy of the plant