Creative Sweat 😅

Inside: An Imagination Workout ✨💪🏽

[Scroll to the bottom for upcoming workshops, plus two things I created to help us through dark times.]

Dear Beautiful Human,

I’ve been “warring” in my mind a lot lately.

I’m ashamed that there’s been more focus on rising gas prices in the U.S. than on the one thousand-plus Iranian civilians we’ve murdered already, including a school full of children. Livid that the military and weapons industry’s stock prices are rising along with the death toll. Furious that our tax dollars are funding this—in addition to DHS raids, the Epstein cover-up, and all of the grift and destruction this administration is perpetrating.

For breaks from this grim headspace, I remind myself that everything begins in the imagination. We can’t only be angry about what is happening. Someone’s gotta get to work articulating what a healthy and thriving future for our planet might look like. Start dreaming it into existence.

Care to join me for a possibilities workout?

I’ll start.

The World I Want For My Great-Great-Great-Grandchildren

Political Leaders: Leaders are drawn to public service by a desire to ease the burdens of their neighbors, and to steward the planet for our descendants in the distant future. Councils of elder women choose candidates to run for elections, if they don’t want to become politicians themselves. Election seasons last for six weeks and costs are covered by a modest public fund. No other money may be solicited from or donated to campaigns, which would risk disqualifying that candidate.

Conflict and War: People of all ages receive ongoing training in emotional intelligence and regulation, including recognizing their own needs and asking for help, as well as deep listening skills to respond appropriately to the needs of others. Non-violent communication and restorative justice strategies are standard practices. War—i.e. failure of imagination—is the abhorrent and absolute last resort when a dispute cannot otherwise be settled. The mothers of soldier-aged children decide whether the conflict is worthy of their sacrifice.

Money: Women manage most financial decisions, from the personal to the global. An Index of Collective Well-Being (ICWB) replaces the GDP, and guides budget decisions. Bartering is common, but gifting is more strongly encouraged and modeled by elders and respected leaders. The stock market dissolves, as people are invested in practicing and supporting the arts, with little time for, or interest in, gambling. When a person shows tendencies toward hoarding (i.e. stockpiling more than one needs for a comfortable living), they receive counseling to work through their fears and scarcity issues, until they can be brought back into the healthy interdependency of the community.

Education: Children spend most of their days out-of-doors, exploring the natural world. Through hands-on guidance they learn to grow food, build shelters with locally available materials, and make clothing, furniture, toys, and tools. Emphasis is placed on discovering each child’s particular gifts and interests, then pairing them with mentors to deepen their skills and talents for service to the community. Meditation and movement are daily practices for all ages, helping people attune to their bodies, minds, spirits, and souls. A high value is placed on developing the intuition, discernment, integrity, and wisdom needed for sound leadership and a balanced life.

Technology: SFOUDBCR (Stolen Faulty Occasionally-Useful Dehumanized Bias-Confirming Regurgitation, previously known as “AI”) appears in history books as a cautionary tale about what happens when people strive to outsource critical thinking and build their own gods. The irrational frenzy that led to whole ecosystems being bulldozed and paved over in order for Those Without Souls to erect enormous computer-holding, water-and-energy-depleting warehouses so horrified the sentient population, that laws were passed and are strictly enforced which prevent all. of. it. from recurring. Not the stealing, nor the ravaging of land, nor the wasting and polluting, nor the capture of precious conversational skills and wondering. Regarding technology in general, we still enjoy and employ typewriters, music and voice transmitting devices, tea kettles, and other magnificent inventions.

This is a partial list, of course. What else matters to you, that you’d like to improve for future generations? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Is It Actually Crazy?

You know, as I write these somewhat absurd-sounding scenarios, the truth is that most of it is already happening somewhere. They’re not new ideas. Many are ancient.

✅ The Gross National Happiness index has been guiding governmental policies in Bhutan since the late 1970s.
✅ Forest Schools, started in Denmark due to a shortage of childcare centers in the 1950s, are gaining popularity in parts of Asia, Europe and the U.S.
✅ Indigenous communities lead the way in educating the public about the damage caused by the proliferation of data centers.
✅ Restorative justice is already being implemented in parts of the US and Canada.
✅ My friends working in international development in the 1990s knew that when micro-loans were given to mothers, the funds were less likely to be gambled away or spent on alcohol, and more likely to support the family’s health and education.
✅ Haudenosaunee people, who have inhabited this land since before it was the United States, are led by clan mothers. They choose the tribes’ leaders, and make decisions based on the Seventh Generation principle.
✅ In many societies before the dawn of capitalist accumulation, “taking more than you need” was considered a mental illness. (Even though hoarding is now classified in the DSM-5 as a psychological disorder, our culture still treats the relentless amassing of money and power as, not a disease, but a status to aspire to and train for.)

An Important Mental Shift

In order to learn from ancient wisdom traditions, we need to first reexamine our distorted notions of “progress.” We in the West pride ourselves on being reasonable and rational, of being higher order thinkers. But what logic is there in destroying the very planet on which our lives depend?

As modern people, we are quite lost. Yes, we’ve developed some amazing devices that make life more convenient, but our souls have been diminished in the process. In the race to dominate Nature, we forgot that we are Nature. We’re at war with ourselves.

Look where over-valuing our intellect (and those who excel in games of the mind), putting our trust in competition (ignoring how the playing field is tilted), and hustling for more more more has gotten us. We’re so busy clamoring for bigger-faster-newer that we forget to ask why? What’s the point?

I’m exhausted from it all! I suspect you are, too.

We deserve lives filled with beauty, joy and laughter.

Rest.

Quiet.

A hearty soup.

Afternoons to push color around a canvas with a paintbrush.

I want to stop and smell the daphne and the jasmine, even though it seems like it shouldn’t be blooming this early in the season. 🤔

I’d like technology to remain a tool, not a master.

I plan to keep talking to strangers. (Remember when we used to regularly ask other humans for directions, and then make little notes or commit it to memory as we went on our way?)

I want my tax dollars to feed, house, and care for the well-being of my neighbors and their children, not to pay for bombs and warehouses to store people who’ve been labeled illegal.

Let’s keep imagining and articulating the desires of our souls. Things have not always been this wayward, and the future is not set in stone (or computer chips or semiconductors or whatever). We get to decide.

With a heavy-yet-full heart, grateful that you’re on the planet with me right now,
-Pam

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Ok, Gorgeous, I’ve got two sweet little products and some upcoming workshops to share with you:

1. Dear Beautiful Human is an interactive colorable journaling book I hand-doodled to help lower your blood pressure. It gently guides you through practices of connection, reminding you how wise you already are (for when you’ve forgotten).

   

   I’ve included bulk pricing to make it easier for you to gift a copy to:
   🖍️ a new graduate heading out into this wild world
   🖍️ someone going through a divorce, a move, an illness, or other transition
   🖍️ a friend who feels stuck and needs loving encouragement.

Order yours here. (There are also options to mix-and-match titles with my other book, Doodle Your Way Out of Stuckness.)

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2. Teeny Tiny Spread the Love Card Sets are made for just that: spreading the love! You’ve seen them in the photos throughout this essay. Now you can purchase your own to give away, leave in random places for some lucky person to stumble upon, or pull from yourself for a bit of daily inspo. Learn more and get yours here.

   

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I’d love to welcome you to one or more of the following events.

Click the links below to learn more and register. Spots are limited so don’t delay!

Tile Mosaics at the ReBuilding Center; Sundays March 15th & 22nd
Doodle & Draw (in my studio); Thursday, March 19th
Open Make (in my studio); Sunday, March 29th
Doodle & Draw (in my studio); Thursday, April 16th
Alma Flamenca flamenco show at Imago Theater; Saturday, April 25th
Open Make (in my studio); Sunday, April 26th