I have daughters who are very creative. They draw, play music, write novels and work with children.

At birthday parties and family gatherings, they make things nobody asked them to make. A poster goes up on the door. The younger kids get pulled into a corner and come back with a play, sometimes a musical. Someone picks up an instrument.

Those moments end up being the highlight of the night: the thing someone made, for us, for that evening. I have seen the healing, inspiring and energizing power of the arts lift up our family, and the same thing happens in a community.

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. … Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

My daughters did not wait to be asked. Most people who can make things do wait, and in most communities the asking never comes. I built IntentSpring so that someone does it.