Invoking Whimsy

Hello friends,

On social media this week, someone wrote: “Why can’t the ‘unprecedented times’ be like gargoyles coming to life? Bats helping me do my laundry? Crows wearing top hats becoming news anchors on major media outlets? WHERE IS THE WHIMSY?”

I laughed, of course, and thought, “This is why I write fiction.” A lot of my fiction is filled with whimsy, and all of my fiction certainly includes a nod to the fantastic. There’s a childlike sense that I want to invoke into the world. I want to celebrate wonder, and the unexpected. I want to recall that sense that something magical exists around each corner, as long as we are open to it.

It’s so easy to get bogged down in our difficulties and in the pain and confusion of the world. What might a practice of invoking whimsy do for our hearts, minds, and souls? How might this practice shift our relationship to the world, and to what is possible?

Children, until they are trained out of it, don’t need to cultivate a sense of whimsy. Their pliable brains and active imaginations find whimsy everywhere, even when that whimsy is on the macabre side.

Whimsy is one antidote to cynicism and despair. Whimsy offers us moments of delight. I hope you find some whimsy to celebrate this week.

And then I hope you pass it on.

best wishes - Thorn

If you’re in need of whimsy, my bonkers paranormal cozy mystery series set in Seashell Cove is filled with it, including gargoyles come to life!