Flourish Anyway® Today: What It Means to Flourish Anyway
A few years ago, after creating and developing Spiritual Direction for Writers®, Parenting with Art®, Belonging Through Art™, and other initiatives, I gave a lot of thought to what holds all of my writing and work together, and here’s what I came up with: I wanted—and I still want—all of us to flourish anyway.
I want my family, friends, clients, readers, and anyone who interacts with my offerings to discover how to flourish long term over the course of their life, as well as in micro-moments where goodness exists during difficult seasons and in the hours and days when ordinary tasks and quotidian responsibilities loom large.
Flourishing feels better to me as a primary desire for others and myself instead of joy or happiness or success or some other positive outcome or descriptive word that doesn’t make as much room for all of life.
And, to take it a bit further, flourishing anyway—even when you experience difficult circumstances, stressful interruptions, destructive disruptions that threaten your sense of wellbeing (and your joy, happiness, and “success”—whatever that is)—is an even better primary desire.
Like most things in life, flourishing isn’t a straight line with consistent forward progress.
When I think more about what it looks like to flourish anyway instead of just flourish, I have more hope about my odds to flourish in the present moment and the coming days, weeks, and months regardless of whatever else life throws my way.
And everything I yearn for and work towards in my relationships, my writing, and my spiritual direction offerings all finds a nice home within a Flourish Anyway® framework. That’s why I decided to add yet another website and registered trademark to my collection.
Flourish Anyway® is the hub for all of my writing and work and a place to explore what it means to flourish anyway, theoretically and practically.
I often find my way through my work and writing through layering ideas, practices, and meaning. So let’s layer a couple of things that are swirling around my mind and soul and see what happens.
The framework I’ve developed to explain my approach to Spiritual Direction for Writers® in my forthcoming book, Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life, encapsulates my approach to all of my spiritual direction work.
The Begin Again-Belong-Become-Behold-Bestow-Begin Again framework does a lot more things, too. It describes movements of creativity and spiritual growth. It can serve as a reflection tool when encountering different forms and mediums of art. It can be used to investigate just about any idea or question.
I can come up with at least a dozen ways to use this framework to explore Flourish Anyway®, but today I’ll use it to simply examine my connection to the concept and some ideas I’ve been thinking about:
Begin
We can return to this from above: “A few years ago, after creating and developing Spiritual Direction for Writers®, Parenting with Art®, Belonging Through Art™, and other initiatives, I gave a lot of thought to what holds all of my writing and work together. I wanted—and still want—all of us to flourish anyway.”
And I’ll add this: After the last presidential election, I knew people would be harmed, oppressed, and killed. I knew horrible things would happen under the coming administration because I saw what happened the first time around. But instead of spiraling into the bad place and feeling like my life and everything else will always be doomed, I decided to figure out how to flourish anyway and help others do the same.
Belong
I do not bury my head in the sand about the current political and societal realities. I am very aware of the chaos and evil perpetrated by those in power in this country. But what I continue to learn is life has always been difficult and those in power have always caused harm and people have figured out how to flourish anyway. And those of us who are privileged enough to have a smoother path to flourishing anyway can give energy and thought to what it looks like for us to contribute to the greater common good and flourishing of all people, especially those who are the targets of this administration.
So, one way Flourish Anyway® intersects with belonging is for me to think about how I can use my writing and work to build connections and relationships and to help others flourish anyway too.
Become
As I continue to think about my writing and my work as a spiritual director and how I show up in my relationships with my family and friends and my broader communities, I continue to become more curious about how people can flourish anyway right now, even while facing horrific situations and setbacks. I have become someone who notices what it means to flourish anyway, what it looks like to flourish anyway, what it takes to choose to flourish anyway.
Behold
What I behold with my eyes, heart, and soul affects my sense of flourishing. For me, this isn’t about having rules or formulas. It’s more about being sensitive to my inner life, my thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires. If I am feeling stuck or overwhelmed or anxious, I know a few things I can try to come out of that place and feel like I’m flourishing anyway, even if the reason I feel stuck, overwhelmed, or anxious remains.
For me, beholding art of some sort always makes everything better. A poem, novel, TV show, song, or painting transforms me in more ways than I can name. Going outside helps too. So does intentional prayer.
When I behold art, nature, and God, I am able to hold more than one reality at the same time. I have a more expansive view of what’s true in the current moment. I remember the power of practicing presence and let go of trying to figure out what life might be like in a week or a month or a year if this president and his administration continue to advance their agenda. Everything might be worse in a year but we won’t really know until we’re there, so beholding good things that help me return to the present moment, remember what I believe, and ground myself in the now enable me to be the person I want to be and flourish anyway while we all wait to see what’s going to happen in a week or month or a year.
Bestow
We were made to be in community with one another. We were made to be connected to our places. We were made to do good work.
My ability to flourish anyway helps me inhabit all of those callings with more energy and joy. When I flourish anyway, I’m better prepared to offer others and myself good things through the work I do, the caregiving I provide, and the art I make.
And if all of us are flourishing anyway, multiply all of that bestowing by millions.
Begin Again
But sometimes this world is too much. Life is too much. I hear about another senseless death, more voter suppression, an additional fatal diagnosis for someone who has so much more beginning, belonging, becoming, beholding, and bestowing left to do on this earth, and I lose hope or faith or both.
I sit in the ick and take some deep breaths and discern what’s going on inside me and around me.
I acknowledge the reality of all of the bad and remember there’s still so much good, especially if we just take it moment by moment, if we try to flourish anyway right now in some small way.
So I begin again. Because that’s what we do.
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Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for thinking a bit about what it means for you to flourish anyway. Feel free to email me if you’re up for sharing your thoughts.
And much love to the creative souls. May we flourish anyway today and all days.
💚Charlotte
P.S.
See the latest FREE Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment offerings here.
See my most recent doses of art at A Daily Dose of Art.
Check out my All of This & More podcast here. (New episodes coming soon!)
Charlotte Donlon is a writer, spiritual director, and gatherer whose work centers on helping people explore themes of belonging, artful encoutners, spiritual growth, and how to Flourish Anyway®, even when life is full, busy, or chaotic. Her work has woven together themes of belonging, art, and soul exploration for more than 25 years. With a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing (2015-2018) and a certificate in spiritual direction (2018-2020), Charlotte guides writers and other creative souls in developing sanctuaries of acceptance and connection.
A Christian in the Episcopal church who believes the tenets of the Nicene Creed, Charlotte employs a universal framework of belonging and connection in her spiritual direction work. She fosters meaningful, soulful conversations and gatherings that are welcoming to all—regardless of faith tradition or spiritual inclinations.
In 2020, Broadleaf Books published Charlotte's first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life is slated for release by Here Below Books in September 2026. Three volumes of Charlotte's "Guidebooks for the Soul"—Take More Retreats, The Great Belonging Project, and Belonging Through Art—will also be published in 2026.
As the founder of several initiatives, Charlotte has established herself as a thought leader and an authentic presence at the intersection of creativity and spirituality. Her essays have been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, and The Millions, among others. A new essay about art conservation, Joan Mitchell, and mystery is forthcoming with Image journal.
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Flourish Anyway® is Charlotte’s online hub for all of her writing, spiritual direction, small press, gatherings, and other offerings.