the case for curiosity
2025: a play in 12 acts
In the slim margins between March and April a veil was lifted. The last weekend of unrelenting winter boiled off with a humid day in New York— a four hour period of complete and total summer that turned the city’s parks into festival grounds. It was like the electric green crack of a glow stick to experience. I felt color come back to my cheeks. I liked everyone’s Instagram story like I was drunk and it was their birthday. I let the sun kiss my arms and legs and saw things with a fresh set of eyes for the first time in months. I had successfully exorcised the winter gloom demon, and finally I could photosynthesize in peace. I felt the cold months of winter physically slough off me in a ribbon of dead skin, like the peel of an apple, and it was wonderful.
Seriously wonderful. Childlike, fancy-free, 100% pulp wonderful. Sometimes you need to be smacked in the face with that feeling to realize you’ve gone without for so long. I think it’s something we can take for granted, something others can use as an excuse to take you less seriously or convince you of some weakness, but innate wonder is such an important thing to have. The easy thing would be going numb. Curiosity and emotion are harder, but the reward is worth the risk every time.
April: Wonder
Seeking the sun, casting out doubt, feeling it all
Course correct your negative patterns. Is something stopping you from letting the light in? Have you been told by people in your life not to do, so you don’t even try? Spend this month fine-tuning how to turn the volume down on negativity without putting the whole world on mute.
Have a healthy dose of delusion. No one gets what they want by telling themselves they don’t deserve it. I don’t just want you to tell yourself you deserve nice things though I want you to like…insist on it. Loudly. Even just to your journal. You have to believe in yourself, you have to choose yourself, and you have to choose to see the sun between the storms.
Clean your slate. Ease your transition to spring with a little spring cleaning of the mind, body, and soul. Bonus self care points: I like to schedule a little facial to feel I’ve really cleansed myself of the past.
Start over often. Don’t worry about perfection. In your creative practices this month let your mind wander and try things you wouldn’t normally. Everything you do doesn’t have to be The Thing You Do, and often these little b plots can inspire your a plot big time.
Dilly dally. How can you soak up all the wonder in the world if you aren’t wasting time? When you’re rushing things are passing you by, but when you’re dilly dallying you’re opening your heart to heaven and you can quote me on that.
Bonus: Play a little game of ‘eye spy love’ when you’re out and about. A baby holding onto their mother’s finger, a stranger giving up their seat on the train, a couple smooching at the bar…there are so many acts of love all around us and rubbing shoulders with it is an act of love for ourselves too.
I see curiosity and wonder as two seeds in the garden of inspiration. When properly cared for and given attention they can take root and bloom into something bigger than ourselves.
In my last post of March, desire I wanna turn into you, I began to explore the importance of curiosity. It keeps coming up for me as a trait vital to all human experience, and especially creative experience. The lowest points of my life have been when I’m apathetic.
“I know who I am when I’m frantic and searching, but the waters are murky when I’m settled. Satisfaction shouldn’t be a final destination, it should exist as a raft to recharge and replenish between deep and unrelenting hunger.”
It takes a lot of vulnerability to be curious. You must not only ask questions, but also have the stamina to seek answers. Curiosity unfurls in front of us and then wonder pops up like this lovely little surprise at the end. The combination of the two is where inspiration strikes. I’m looking to open my heart to this recipe more often.
The other day I went for a walk and let my curiosity peek at the windows of the beautiful Park Slope brownstones. Usually I catch a glimpse of an expensive pendant light in the distance, or some floor to ceiling built-ins, but today I looked longer and saw so much more. On the ground floor a woman was holding her baby to the window. I waved and watched his squished up face stretch into a smile, and then he passed that smile on to me.
A few minutes later I saw some beautiful lace curtains against a glass door with a matte black frame. Lace popped up again a few blocks later, this time hung prettily in the windows of a grand living room. The more I thought about lace the more I was seeing it, and I had a whole collection of sightings by the time my walk was finished.
I arrived at a coffee shop filled almost entirely with Brooklyn dads and their tween daughters. I let my mind wander as I took note of the similarities between these pairs— lots of tired but hip 38 year old faces. The one next to me had a mug he clearly brought from home, which probably earned him a discount and also a sense of responsibility for the planet. Because I am susceptible to wholesome dad content I found the abundance of these pairs enormously sweet. I started making up backstories for each of them. I was picturing mom at home, able to have a second alone or at least some solo time with their youngest while dad was out bonding. I listened while the dads asked questions about their friends, helped with their homework, watched their favorite TikToks. It was perfect ambience for my flat white.
I had come for a quiet space to journal, and when I sat down to write my walk started flowing out of me. Every little twig and bud on the trees I passed became a siren song for spring. All the people I watched were perfect color for my stories. I cleared the dust from my shelves and let myself sit and wonder all afternoon.
⊹₊ Keepsakes from March ₊ ⊹
First of all…March was major. Keepsake hit 10,000 subscribers. I cannot begin to thank you for your support in this journey. I’m putting together a little giveaway to say thanks where 10 people will win a comped annual subscription, and one extra person will win a care package with a few of my favorite things. I’m still finalizing the bundle but expect to see my favorite book to inspire writing, a notebook, pens that write really well, and some fun bonuses. I will be posting the giveaway in a separate email later this week so keep your eye out for that and again thank you so so much for being here with me.
I stretched my legs all across the city this month. One of my favorite places to land is Goods for the Study, a stationery offshoot of McNally Jackson. I looked at all of these beautiful journals and didn’t buy a single one for myself, so I’m basically superhuman.
After months of planning my dear friend and I took a much needed vacation to Palm Springs. We live on opposite sides of the country, so we don’t get a lot of time together, and it was amazing to have an entire long weekend by the pool to do nothing but gab. She’s incredibly creative and I always feel my mind sharpening around her. It was super healing, sweet, and sunny.
I also finally pulled the trigger on these chunky hoops and have literally not taken them off since. I love being rewarded for patience and research by being absolutely obsessed with a purchase.
Most crucially I saw A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM starring Paul Mescal and hung around the stage door to capture this delightful video. I must admit it took me an embarrassingly long time to watch the original movie, but when I did I saw so many references to other media I love. Particularly in Blanche, the original faded glamour southern belle.
In other news: I’m planning a writing retreat.
I’m going to dedicate many posts to that eventually, but I’m just getting too excited to keep it a secret from you any longer. It’s something I’ve been plotting with my writing group for a bit. I’ve been on one writing retreat before, back in 2016. It was a songwriting retreat outside of Nashville, and the experience sits with me to this day. I learned so much about collaborative songwriting, but even more about the importance of dedicating time and space to your craft. I’m excited to be the person to bring that time and space to my group of writers.
Part of me is freaking out about it because I’ve never hosted this kind of thing before, but there’s a much more rational part of me that knows it’s going to be great. It’s going to be at a lake property in upstate New York at that perfect melt of spring into summer. There’s going to be dedicated writing time, guided nature walks, and lots of delicious food to keep us going.
Mealtimes were very intentional on my songwriting retreat. I really loved the importance placed on sitting at a communal table and doing nothing but eat and talk for an hour. Sharing a meal is a sacred thing, and I think an inspired menu can inspire you beyond your dinner plate. That’s why I’m enlisting the help of a private chef (also known as my sister) to create the ultimate meal plan. We’re looking to serve three square meals a day and create custom drinks for something I’m dubbing ‘parlor hour’, a cocktail hour in the formal living room where we dissect our days and share what we’ve been working on.
The joy I’m getting from even relaying my plans for this event makes me wonder if it’s something I should be doing more of in my daily life. Maybe I start planning smaller events locally in the city, or help facilitate someone else’s programming. I just really love hosting people, so being able to do it while ushering in the creativity of a collective is a dream come true.
I’ll keep you updated on all my scheming, dreaming, and otherwise in future editions of keepsake. I’ve got a ton planned for this month so buckle up! Until then don’t forget to wonder often, and paid subscribers stay tuned for a club keepsake with lots of prompts on April 4th.
xo,
Julianna