ideas
when they choose you (and sometimes leave you)
I love sitting in the tension between science and magic, that shimmering space where reason and mystery coexist. It’s my favorite paradox. I also love Halloween. So in honor of both, let’s talk about magic. Specifically, the magical nature of ideas.
I first met this concept through Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Gilbert proposes that ideas are not just human thoughts but rather energetic life forms that roam the ether, searching for human partners willing to bring them into the world. When an idea finds such a person who agrees to the partnership, the collaboration begins. The human’s role is simple but sacred: make it real.
Gilbert herself once partnered with such an idea in a distinct novel called Evelyn of the Amazon. But when life pulled her away, the idea moved on. Years later, her friend Ann Patchett began writing a novel with an almost identical premise. The two authors compared notes and realized the same story had chosen them both, one after the other. Call it coincidence if you wish. Gilbert and Patchett call it sorcery. I’m with them. As is Rick Rubin:
“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”
I too experienced this type of “big magic”. In early 2020, mid-flight, an idea burst into my mind so vividly it spilled across my journal before the plane landed. It was a children’s book. The story glowed with color and courage. But almost as soon as it arrived, fear and doubt crept in. Who was I to write a book? I had no training, no credentials. For two years I quietly wrote, sketched, erased, and told myself I couldn’t do it. My own doubt and fear of failure paralyzed me from giving the idea its true form. The two main characters, however, were so insistent on existing, they came through in one fell swoop. They are thrilled to finally introduce themselves:
Two years passed and I had no illustrations beyond this first page. Then, one crisp fall afternoon in a little mountain bookstore, the magical nature of “my” idea revealed itself. On the children’s shelf sat a beautiful and colorful book: The Last Rainbow Bird by Nora Brech. I froze. Its pages mirrored my vision… the characters, the palette, even the final soaring scene. The titles differed by only four letters: mine was The Lost Rainbow Kite! The idea hadn’t died, it had simply found another human ready to bring it to life.
Fast forward to 2024. After returning from our world trip, it was clear my chapter as a genetic counselor had ended. I wanted my next venture to allow me to maximize my impact by alchemizing my privilege into purpose, but I had no idea (pun) what it could be.
I didn’t know it then, but the idea of The Ōnda Collective was already circling above me, waiting to land. Meanwhile, I was still silently carrying around an obligation to somehow complete Olive & Diego’s story. During a poignant session, my coach suggested that maybe “completion” wasn’t a published book at all. Maybe it was simply the journey itself: the lived lesson of letting ideas flow through me and the important growth I experienced when I faced what was holding me back.
This new frame of reference shifted everything. There was no sense working on something that was already complete! And just as soon as I felt closure with The Rainbow Kite, The Ōnda Collective came knocking.
Last week I hosted Ōnda’s first in-person retreat. It was a well-being focused 3-day event for genetic counselors to practice wellness skills and earn educational units required for their certification maintenance. On theme, it was magical. In one very special moment, I was silently admiring 50 participants create flower arrangements alongside the founder of RisingKites Non-Profit when I felt the intense life force of the Collective. I leaned against the wall to steady myself as I felt the magic. This retreat was nothing but thin air just a few months prior. And now it is creating lasting and transformative ripples of positive change.
A persistent idea to create a ripple effect of well-being and authenticity in our world asked me to be her hands, heart and head. I’m so grateful I said yes. And grateful to Olive & Diego for the training I needed to be positioned to do so.
Maybe you’ve felt it too. That whisper of an idea that brushes past your imagination like a leaf falling on an autumn day. Or maybe it visits in dreams, in showers, or when you’re closer to the ether on a flight. If you say yes, it stays. If you deliberately say no, it drifts away to find another willing partner. Sometimes you’re too busy to even hear it knock. Either way, it’s alive.
This season, when magic feels closer at hand, what if you treated your ideas as something sacred and sentient? Not as obligations to complete, but as kind colleagues, each revealing something about who you are becoming and what you are positioned to bring forth in this world.
Reflection: Working With Your Own Ideas
What idea or project keeps gently tugging at your sleeve, asking for your attention? An old dream? An unfinished project? A creative change at the office?
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Is its “completion” a different form than you imagined? Has it taught you something about yourself? Is it time to to release it?
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Or is it time to roll up your sleeves, get out of your own way, and commit?
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If you say yes, how does the idea want to work through you? What is your first step?
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Send me your thoughts and stories of your relationships with ideas. I’d love to hear them!
daniela@theondacollective.org
With love and magic,
Daniela
Founder, The Ōnda Collective
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