Touch Stones

A Monday Art / Life Prompt

Dec 15, 2025

Being alone is where I go to recharge, but not always to grow.

Lately I have become more aware of something I have always known: I thrive best in spaces and communities with shared intentions. In addition to the (epic) joy of community, there is something about having external, reliable standards for understanding my efforts and quality of work.

I normally wouldn’t say something like that. How often do you hear artists or anyone on a healing path advocating for using external factors to measure ourselves? Like, never.

But this doesn’t mean outsourcing my own inner knowing to anyone or anything else, and it doesn’t mean I don’t trust myself. What it means is that having regular opportunities to tap into something larger keeps me accountable and wildly engaged.

Do you have any touchstones in your life or creative practice?

12/15/2025
touch stones

A touchstone can be a point for self-reflection and evaluation that takes place in the world around you instead of just in your own mind.

Going beyond our own minds and into meetings of the minds can feel very purposeful and refreshing. I love a good space to be with others; I appreciate opportunities to give reports and ask questions; and I benefit from regular meeting times that keep me tapped into the work.

Without touchstones like this, our creative practices might feel a little lost, a little irregular, and maybe even pointless at certain times, even if they are certainly far from pointless.

This is in contradiction with something I thought I believed: that the root of art-making is deep within us, and that alone can sustain us.

But in the last month I felt very compelled to sign up for three things this spring:

A bi-weekly group class with a botanical pigments expert for making her recipes and sharing together in a group. This is going to be great for studio time and give me more reasons to experiment with things I may not otherwise know about.
A a 12-week meditation course with a teacher I’ve studied with before, for an exploration of the way he has modeled vipassana practice for nondual awareness. This is going to feel great to have opportunities to be in a structured program for deepening my practice.
I finally joined Amelia Hruby’s ‘The Interweb’ - a network for creative business owners who are either not on, or trying to leave, social media. This is going to help me feel less alone in my choices to leave instagram and introduce me to more perspectives, feedback, and camaraderie.

Meeting with teachers and space holders who guide, in a group setting where people are sharing, is a touchstone for me. A way to gather perspectives and share my own. A way to make sense of my practice, and perhaps even assess the quality of it.

The prompt today is simple.

First, dream:

What kind of community experience would enrich your creative practice and help you thrive? Get dreamy when thinking about this.

Then, seek:

If you are like me right now and community feels beneficial, seek out courses or memberships that relate to your interests or growth areas.

Or, create:

If you can’t find anything that resonates, start your own! It can be simple. A friend and I have a standing ‘art hang’ every other week that has been going on since 2020. Sometimes this alone can be an amazing opportunity for both creative thriving and friendship.

If none of that is resonating, there is never any harm in touching an actual stone. Sometimes a little fingerprint-on-earth contact is all we need to feel clear and re-charged.

Are you craving something like this for your creative practice or life? Or, have you already found something that is working? Let us all know in the comments!

Field of Visions

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