intentions for a creative community

this is a post reflecting on my personal intentions for commiting to building a creative community (which is in the process of birthing).

my 5 intentions are:

(1) a vessel to give to, and create for

(2) focusing my energy

(3) expansive growth at personal + collective levels

(4) inspiring + inspired; generative creativity

(5) intimate connectedness

origins & context

last summer, I wrote a long post called a hermit growing creative community — about the tensions I felt around solitude vs. being in community with others, around being an artist vs. being a guide — supporting, nurturing, and in service to others.

I knew that there was a false dichotomy between the two, and at that time, I was deep in the process of integration, and breaking that dichotomy within myself (along with deconstructing other false dichotomies, like art vs. money).

at the time, I had just finished guiding one of the most nourishing seasons of creative circle, and was feeling the call to commit to build community on a more long-term basis — rather than as a pop-up, contained group course or experience with an end date.

I listened to the urge, collected feedback via a google survey, and then… I did nothing. I ventured into another journey of the artist-entrepreneur, and I let that community idea sit inside of me.

a project ready to be born

this January, as I was writing down my priorities for 2024, my hand wrote “build an ongoing creative community” as one of them. I guess that something within me says, now it’s time. I trust in the right timing of everything, and I can feel that I’m very different now — than who I was a year, or even six months ago.

one of my priorities for this month of February is launching a version 1.0 of the landing page and the community itself — (more like a soft invitation, as is my launching style).

but before I commit to birthing anything, I always want to get extremely clear about why. I wrote in last summer’s reflections that 3 things are necessary for community-building: INTENTION, CONTAINER, INVITATION.

this post is me reflecting outloud on my intentions and desires for this community.

exploring my 5 core intentions

(1) a vessel to give to, and create for

Ok, so first off, I often feel my brain bubbling with ideas for fun, creative things — zines, workbooks, workshops, mini-courses, retreats, penpal-y exchanges, book clubs, creative challenges — almost like I’m a wild, artsy counselor in charge of the programming in an experimental summer camp called THE CREATIVE & DIGITAL LIFE.

BUT I never do any of them, because (a) I’m distracted by the gazillion other things I do for my private clients, my own artistic pracice, and nurturing my own digital world / creative psychic space, and (b) always launching and packaging / dong admin for new mini-offerings feels pretty tiring, and I don’t have that kind of launch-y energy, especially for small offerings.

in other words: I don’t want to launch a dozen small things. I want to launch one container that can hold those dozen things.

this brings me to…

(2) focusing my energy

I think there was a time in my life where running creative courses would really drain my energy; when I was struggling with feeling replenished and resourced — psychically, emotionally, materially — that I felt I had to choose between giving to myself vs. giving to others. the two were in tension.

I don’t feel that way now. when I give to others here, on my website-world; when I write guides and share my processes and insights, I feel like I am giving to myself.

I’m at a place where I’m really excited to be the wilderness tour guide / camp counselor / facilitator / programming creator / nurturing gardener of a community garden.

but while I have the urge to burst with 10,000 creative ideas for little gifts and collaborations, having ONE VESSEL to focus my energy into — a vessel that is a paid offering, which does ask for monetary-energetic reciprocity in return — this feels good to me.

(3) expansive growth at personal + collective levels

I don’t just want a community where participants feel safe, seen, and secure in; I want a deep, sacred sense of safety, AND, I want a community that pushes growth and expansion (creatively, emotionally, spiritually, mentally) — starting at an individual level. I’ve always believed that the individual level — the micro-level is where any collective change starts, and it’s through embracing that individuality — and embodying it, that the expansion can ripple outwards.

recently, I’ve been seeing how communal support is so nourishing, giving, and generative to this individual (and often lonely) endeavor of the creative practice.

and while I’ve personally been shy to seek community — after my years of hermitude, I emerged with the conviction that you CAN have a community that encourages individuality and nestles you in supportive, generative relationship to others.

I want to build community because I know it’ll help me grow — as an artist, a guide, a mentor, a teacher, and builder-visionary of new worlds on the internet.

(4) inspiring + inspired; generative creativity

all this to say: I want to grow a community that inspires me; and where I can be inspired, within it — and give full flow of my creativity and nurturing energy to it, in a cyclical, generative, giving-and-receiving ecosystem.

I want a community that inspires me to lead, to show up as a leader and guide — to do things differently, to create new possibilities, to support the creative spirit to its fullest potential.

And in doing this work, I want to practice being unafraid of being seen.

(5) intimate connectedness

all the feedback I’ve received from participants of my previous courses and communities always describe the experience as intimate, supportive, soft, tender.

this is deliberate.

intimate is a really important word to me — intimate is how I want to be spoken to (by the right people, of course) — because intimate cuts through all the superficial marketing-y projection of image — and goes like a shot straight to the heart-soul.

intimate is about attention, and attentiveness — to oneself, to one’s creative practice, to life, and to each other. I want the feeling to be intimate as in — connected to something real and loving, holding space — no matter what.

of course, even with all these visions, there’s definitely resistance — like fear of commitment, fear of overwhelm, fear of “failure.” I’ll explore that in another post.

I’ll end today’s reflections by sharing my first visions and intentions, from last summer:

early visions and intentions (from june 2023)

my intention is to build the kind of community I never found:
I want to build a space that encourages and deepens one's relationship with oneself, first and foremost -- as the act of filling your own cup, first -- then allowing your fullness to overflow, and to nourish others.
I want a space where we can all go venture deeper into exploring our own idiosyncrasies, individualities, our unique shades of truth -- what makes us different, and what makes us the same.
I want to explore what connects us as creative beings -- ultimately, what gifts and responsibilities we have to each other, to our environment, the planet, the universe.
I want a community that fosters intimacy with our art, our way of seeing, and intimacy with others, as a self-reinforcing cycle. I want to encourage cyclical gardening, shared gardening.
I want the kind of community that allows us to feel more free -- and yet, stronger, and more nourished, capable of building more, together.

I send a weekly newsletter on the embodied creative internet life, called guide.notes.

creative practiceKening ZhuFebruary 2, 2024community, microgardens, project intentions