Kristin Wesley

December’s Theme is Abundance.

Gratitude magnifies our experience of abundance. When we marvel at the taste of ripe summer fruit, juice bursting from its skin. When we set a table, a seat for every person we cherish, and bathe in the radiance. 

Generosity multiplies abundance. When we prioritize mutual flourishing over private stockpiling, plant ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer posits, “the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away.” Once you stop hoarding what you fear to lose, you find that the more you share, the richer — in community, in wellbeing — you become.

Our Santa Fe chapter chose this month’s exploration of Abundance, Neebinnaukzhik Southall illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

November’s Theme is Truth.

Truth lies at the bottom of a well, winding from its source in the icepack of distant mountains. Truth tastes pristine, uncompromised by what would be profitable or convenient. Truth causes your body to hum like a tuning fork, resonating at the same frequency as the universe around you. “When you experience an undeniable truth,” writer and social worker Jessica Dore observes, “you will beg, borrow, and steal. You will rearrange your whole life, forsake everything, just to serve what is real.”

Our Buenos Aires chapter chose this month’s exploration of Truth and Sol Cotti illustrated the theme.

October’s Theme is Ethos.

Ethos is that specific quality that defines a place, time, or group of people. When you step into a room, a busy downtown, or a community gathering, you intuit its spirit. Ethos is alchemic, ineffable, and infinitely ponderable across place and culture. What ways of moving through the world did you inherit?

Our Asheville chapter chose this month’s exploration of Ethos and Colin Sutherland illustrated the theme. 

September’s Theme is Depth.

Depth is a space that denies easy ways of seeing or comprehending — when we shine a light into the deep blue of the ocean, we cannot see much further than the surface. In our age of instant answers, we bristle at this resistance. It’s often easier to reduce people, places, and ideas into flattened renderings, rather than grapple with the nuanced and contradictory truths found in their depths. 
Our Columbus chapter chose this month’s exploration of Depth and Bryan Christopher Moss illustrated the theme.

August’s Theme is Critical.

To be critical means to be like a sieve, dividing and separating. Our critical abilities allows us to discern the insubstantial from the made-to-last, the credible from the untrustworthy, the sincere from the ego-driven. We do so by gathering more information, seeking nuance, and locating something in its specific context.

Our Calgary chapter chose this month’s exploration of Critical, Maedeh Mosaverzadeh illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

April’s Theme is Kismet.

When the stars align and good fortune visits, it must be kismet. An unexpected windfall, a chance encounter with another that blossoms, a doorway opening to impossible dreams. Kismet is a little pocket of time just for you. We marvel at the sheer, unlikely wonder of these moments. 

Our Istanbul chapter chose this month’s exploration of Kismet, Selin Çınar illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is our Global presenting partner.

Release is a critical part of growth, healing, and transformation. We can release each other from our claims. We can be the means of each others’ deliverance. It’s what gives the words “I release you” their power. 

CreativeMornings/Portsmouth chose August’s theme of Release and Allie Runnion illustrated the theme.

You can spend a lifetime looking for a sense of home. In his poem “Journey Home,” Rabindranath Tagore writes, “The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own.“ Home can be a place we belong, home can be found among people we love, home can be carried with you wherever you go. 

Home is a direction we’re tilted towards. Home is something we have to remake again and again. What home have you built for yourself? What can we do to build a home for each other?

CreativeMornings/Kansas City chapter chose July’s Home theme, and Allison Kerek Williams created the accompanying illustration.

This month, we shine a light on all the leaders who are also women, from across the vast spectrum of identities and experiences of womanhood. The decision-makers, the life-givers, the caregivers, the frontline workers, the problem-solvers, the world-changers. The organizers and activists, the artists and writers and innovators. The teachers, scientists, medical professionals, politicians, business owners. The ones with megaphones and the ones working behind-the-scenes. Without you, where would our world be?

To be resilient is to be adaptable. It’s a way of being that’s flexible and alive, bouncing with the stuff of survival: learning, evolving, and intertwining our roots to share resources and to create a strong anchor of collective care. Like trees in a storm, it means swaying instead of snapping.

CreativeMornings/Dallas chose May’s Resilient theme, and Niki Dionne made the accompanying illustration.