The three-member committee met Tuesday to begin establishing the voter-approved government watchdog position, focusing on recruitment and appointment processes.
Greetings, savvy savers and creative coupon clippers! Last week, we transformed those worthless expired ads into a vibrant source of creative play, proving that value can be found in the most unexpected places. Did you craft a found poem from marketing speak or design a heartfelt “value coupon” for someone worth the investment? Perhaps you explored the fantastical soundtrack for the entire lifecycle of a coupon; bonus-level points if you found sound to be a profound.
This week, we’re getting in touch with our feelings to recharge our creative potential. Our creative nudge is a familiar experience this time of year—dreaming of cooler places. Drum roll, please… we’re manifesting our sense of anticipation to provide several minutes of creative inspiration, despite the likelihood of perspiration.
What does anticipation feel like in your body? For me, it’s those fluttering butterflies in my stomach before a book reading. It’s the hum of excitement when I get a text notification that a package will hit my porch today. It’s those long minutes after I’ve ordered my favorite lunch and now all that’s left to do is wait.
What kinds of things or events do you look forward to? Maybe it’s a long-awaited trip or a beloved visitor. Do you wait expectantly all week for the quiet satisfaction of a weekend morning? That buzzing sensation, that internal hum of “almost there,” isn’t just a byproduct of our desires; it often enhances the experience itself, allowing us to savor it before it even begins, and perhaps even helping us prepare for it.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes planning a trip is almost more enjoyable than the trip itself? There’s a distinctively human quirk to that—the act of imagining, researching and visualizing the future adventure can be so rich and satisfying that the actual experience, with its inevitable hiccups, sometimes pales in comparison. Exploring why we humans are so drawn to anticipation, and why we sometimes prefer the build-up to the event itself, can be a useful activity.
Anticipation is not passive and it’s anything but quiet; it’s about our brains actively engaging with an imagined future. Environments, both natural and built, are often designed or evolved to support our love of anticipation. Think of the circuitous path up Mt. Rubidoux that hides the panoramic view until the summit, the rising curtain before the start of a live theater performance, or even the careful pacing of an animated short.
These aren’t just spaces for spacing out. Rather, let’s consider them as stages for the delightful art of anticipation, carefully curated to build excitement and expectation. Let’s tap into this powerful human emotion and use it to fuel our creative endeavors with one or more of the following:
The Final Countdown (Multi-sensory): Choose a small, upcoming event (your next meal, a phone call, going to bed). Spend several minutes actively anticipating it, focusing on what you expect to experience with each of your senses: What will it look like? Sound like? Smell like? Feel like? Taste like? Write a vivid, sensory description of this anticipated moment, capturing its essence before it even happens.
Parking Lot Playlist (Sound & Emotion): Create a short “pre-moment” playlist of two or three songs or sounds that capture the feeling of anticipation. It’s not about the event itself, but the energy of looking forward to it. If you can, listen to it and describe the mood it evokes.
Delight Design (Visual & Spatial): What if Google Maps could send you on the route that best stimulates your sense of anticipation for your destination? Imagine you’re creating a small environment or object designed purely to build anticipation. This could be a “portal” to your favorite reading nook, a complicated gift wrap for a treat, or a unique pathway to your coffee maker. Sketch or describe this creation, detailing how its visual elements or layout stretch your sense of waiting.
Rewrite Invite (Narrative & Conceptual): Consider any mundane event like brushing your teeth that you don’t look forward to. Instead of detailing the event itself, write a short, intriguing “invitation” to it. This invitation should focus entirely on building anticipation without revealing too many specifics. Use evocative language, hints and promises to make the reader (or recipient) intensely curious about what’s to come.
Body High (Visual & Emotional): When you feel that surge of anticipation in your body, what does it look like? Does it have a color, a shape, a movement? Find a quiet moment to sit with that feeling. Then create an abstract drawing or painting that visually represents your personal “sense of anticipation.” Let colors, lines and forms convey the energy, excitement or calm of looking ahead.
With full awareness, let’s consciously lean into our natural capacity for anticipation. By exploring these expected unknowns, we discover not only how to savor future moments more deeply but how to harness that potent energy for our own creative expressions, right here in the present.
This column was written with the help of Google’s Gemini Advanced, a powerful generative AI writing tool.
