Dear Creativity,

Last month, I stumbled upon a praying mantis on my morning walk. It placed itself on the path of the walkway of my apartment complex as I began my journey.

It was large, green, completely still, and alert against the gray pavement beneath it. In a world rushing past, it felt almost out of place. I remember wondering how many people would walk right by without noticing. I almost did too. But something made me stop.

I’ve been carrying that moment with me ever since.

The new year arrived loudly: full calendars, travel plans, unexpected twists, and then a cold that forced me to slow down whether I wanted to or not. And somewhere in the middle of all that motion, my thoughts kept returning to that mantis in my path each time I scrolled through the photo gallery on my phone.

Stillness. Presence. Attention.

I wonder if it appeared as a reminder not to rush ahead, not to power through, but to be here. To stay connected to you, Creativity, not just in moments of making, but in moments of noticing.

The mantis didn’t move to get out of the way.
It didn’t hurry.
It simply existed: grounded, aware, patient.

And maybe that’s the invitation I’ve been circling this month: to resist the urge to sprint into the year, and instead move forward with intention. To remember that my connections with you, Creativity, don’t always arrive through action. Sometimes it emerges as a pause.

So I’m sitting with this question now:

What might change if we treated stillness as a form of creative practice and trusted that paying attention is already a way of beginning?

Innovatively yours,
Dr. Abigail