Creative Kindling: Doing & Making Are Acts of Hope

My sacred texts, honing our baby eyes, and the emotional GPS that steers us through chaos — 4 prompts, 3 quotes, 2 questions, and 1 wish

”Doing and making are acts of hope.” — Corita Kent

This week, as we're processing the election in the US, I hope you’re feeling all your feelings and getting them out of your body and onto the dance floor/paper/voice note/canvas/whatever works for you. I’ve sure been trying to.

Creative practices are vital in topsy turvy times. We make marks on a page, move our bodies to music, shape raw materials with our hands - not to escape reality, but to sink deeper into it. This is how we metabolize what feels impossible to digest and how we move towards envisioning a new reality.

“What can I do?” is a fantastic knock-knock on the door of creativity. Curiosity wakes up imagination. Other questions: "What's one tiny thing I could do right now?" or "Hey creativity, what mischief shall we make today?"

Remember that it’s a beautiful thing to care, to be soft in a hard world. To have been — and to remain — hopeful. Remember that your compassion, imagination, playfulness, and joy are critical forces in this world. They are a balm and a spring board. We need them, so let’s feed them.

I'm test-driving something new called Creative Kindling—your Zippo for igniting schemes and dreams. It's full of playful prompts to spark reflection, inspiration, and action.

Ahead: 4 creative prompts, 3 quotes, 2 questions, and 1 wish.

4 CREATIVE PROMPTS — THINGS TO DO

1. Compile A Folder Of “Sacred Texts”
   
   When I’m feeling sunken, I go to a folder in my photo library called “Sacred Texts” where I keep poems (like this one), book passages, and screenshots of moving Instagram posts (like this). I revisit them often, like prayers, and have printed out my most beloved ones into my A1 journal to read regularly.

   
   If I’ve been sucked off into a doom spiral, they act as a spiritual chiropractor visit — crick-crack, my heart is realigned.
   
   I got this idea of choosing your own Sacred Texts from the book The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities Into Soulful Practices by Casper ter Kuile (which I recommend!).

2. Write Notes To Yourself To Excavate Your Feelings & Be Your BFF
   

   Often I don’t really understand how I feel until I get writing. My regular practice is writing to myself as I would a loved one. I address myself as “Sweet Pea,” my childhood nickname and use these notes to observe my own feelings, articulate how I am hurting in a given moment, and offer myself gentle advice. It helps me cultivate self compassion, get clearer about my internal world and values, and hold myself accountable for making changes or asking for help.
   
   It feels awkward and tender at first but well worth pushing through!

   

3. Take Yourself On A Wonder Wander
   

   It’s such a small thing, but when I’m depressed (be it clinically or colloquially) or feel stuck, I take myself out on a Wonder Wander: a search for glimmers of joy, beauty, and delight. I look up, down, and all around for people playing, micro acts of love, silly things that amuse me, and life finding a way. The practice hones my newborn baby eyes for the world.

   
   If you’re in NYC and want to join a community Wonder Wander, let me know… feels like it might be a welcome group activity rn.
   

   

4. Cook Your Feelings & Share Food As Love
   
   I grew up in a family that expressed love through food and taught me that in times of grief, you show up with a homemade meal. The creative act of cooking is majorly therapeutic and nurturing, whether you feel confident in your culinary skills or not (arranging snack plates artistically counts!).

   
   If you want to take action beyond feeding your sweet self, you could cook for a loved one who’s hurting, donate to the community fridge, or volunteer in a local soup kitchen (I cook here sometimes).

   

3 QUOTES — FOR INSPIRATION

1. "Maybe it was the willingness to play that hinted at a tender, eternally newborn part in all humans. Maybe it was the willingness to play that kept one from despair"
   
   — Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
   

2. ”In the dark times
   Will there also be singing?
   Yes, there will also be singing.
   About the dark times.”
   

   ―Bertolt Brecht
   

3. “I will not give up
   the flowers in my heart
   just because the world is a hard place.
   
   The world
   is only a hard place
   because it needs more
   flower-hearted people.”
   
   —Nikita Gill
   

2 QUESTIONS — TO PONDER

1. What creative practices help you process emotions or challenges?
   

2. Do you have any texts, artworks, or recipes that center you in times of turmoil?
   

   Share your answers in the comments if you feel up to it!
   

1 WISH — FOR YOU

May you remember that your creativity isn't just some flashy decals on your car, it’s your emotional GPS, rerouting you through the chaos.

May you trust that even the smallest creative acts—that half-formed poem you typed in your notes app, the way you arranged your breakfast into a face, the extra line you put in that email to make someone smile—all matter and are gas in your tank.

May you know that when you let yourself play and create you're a shining headlight of possibility and permission, illuminating the road for those around you.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s creative kindling (and the car analogies from someone without a driver’s license).

Thanks for playing,

xo P