CreativeMornings/OC

Nobody tells you that finding sustenance in your own belonging is a practice. It doesn’t arrive all at once. it’s in the small choices, the quiet mornings, the moments where you stop reaching outside yourself for confirmation that you’re okay. You were always okay. Still figuring it out. Still showing up. Still choosing yourself even when it’s inconvenient. That’s the work. That’s the path. 📆Friday, May 22nd · 8:30–10AM 📍Serendipity Labs · Costa Mesa 🎟️Free to attend. 🔗 Link in bio to grab your spot.

Kacie didn’t learn how to ride a bike until she was an adult. And when she finally did learn, she didn’t go anywhere specific. No route. No destination. Just movement. Somewhere between not knowing where she was going and trusting her body to figure out the next turn, she started to understand something about intuition it’s not a skill you study. It’s one you earn by showing up without a plan and staying present anyway. 📸 @the_eyesee 🗓️Friday, May 22nd · 8:30–10AM 📍Serendipity Lab Free to attend. Come ready to get a little lost. 🔗 Link in bio to grab your spot.

She wasn’t allowed to take art classes growing up. Now she helps people unlearn the need to have all the answers. @kacielynm is an Artist-in-Residence at @serendipity_labs_costa_mesa built her career in rooms where certainty was the job whether coaching the King of Morocco’s magistrates, launching safety programs in Istanbul, advising entertainment executives on the science of creativity. She was good at it. But the more she solved for the “right” answer, the more she felt something slipping. Intuition. Vulnerability. The kind of trust that can’t be manufactured. So she stopped trying to have the answers. Today she’s a mixed media artist and public art facilitator designing participatory installations and creative gatherings that move people out of performance and perfection but instead into deep listening, intuitive response, and making from what’s actually present. Her words: “Creativity doesn’t hand you a plan. It hands you a flashlight.” She’ll share her navigational tools step by step. You might just build something that didn’t exist before. 📆Friday, May 22 (8:30am-10am) 📍 Serendipity Labs, Costa Mesa 🎟️RSVP in bio! it’s FREE

May’s global theme is CREATE. It was chosen in collaboration with our global partner Adobe and illustrated by Ana Grigorovici @designbench.studio . Get inspired with this month’s hashtag: #CMcreate

Working Drafts 005 is an open studio creative co-working session hosted by Joy128 — structured enough to keep you moving, spacious enough to let the work breathe. Co-working · Facilitated conversations · Focus sessions Ambient sound · Beverages and small bites · Real people doing real work Part of Open Curriculum. Built for creatives who are tired of working alone. Wednesday, May 6th (5:30pm - 8:00pm) · Serendipity Labs · RSVP → link in bio

bad portraits. real connection. we don’t slow down enough to really look at each other. this month @badportraits_ (alex) had us sit across from each other and draw what we saw terribly, purposefully, and with full presence. the result was a room full of people actually slowing down and being a little vulnerable together. there’s something that happens when you’re tasked with capturing someone and you know you’re going to get it wrong. the pressure drops. you actually pay attention. you sit with a person longer than you normally would. alex created a room where vulnerability felt low-stakes and intimacy snuck in through the side door. no pitch. no portfolio. just pencils, bad proportions, and people genuinely seeing each other for a minute. thank you @badportraits_ for coming through and reminding us that the point was never the drawing. 🙏 📸 @pixelsandmagic @michaelward.photography

What if burnout isn’t the end of the fire but just the rebirth phase? This april 24th, CreativeMornings OC welcomes Dr. Jaime Raygoza a career coach, child of immigrants, and someone who burned so bright he almost burned out completely. We’re talking about burnout differently this time. Not as a failure but as a signal, a soft restart, a moment where you get to ask — Do I keep going the way i was, or do i try something different? The theme is Ember 🔥 because every big fire starts with protecting the small one. free. open to all. link in bio. 📍 Serendipity Labs, Costa Mesa 📅 Friday, April 24th 🕠 8:30am – 10:00MA 🔗RSVP, it’s free, link in bio

two communities. one room. bring your work. Joy128 and @thescrib are linking up this April for Working Drafts. A space for creatives who are mid-process, mid-question, or just ready to get out of their own head for a few hours. if you’re building a creative practice and want to be around others doing the same, this one’s for you. 📅 Wednesday, April 8 🕠 5:30 – 8:00 PM 📍 Serendipity Labs · Costa Mesa ✏️ RSVP through Luma, link in bio no finished pieces required. just show up with something you care about.

Last Friday I had the privilege to sit with Terrill Thomas and talk about something we don’t give ourselves enough permission to do anymore as adults or as creatives, just play. not for money. Not for clout. not for a deliverable. not because it leads somewhere. just... because we used to have fun with it. Seems like a lot of us forgot how it feels to do that. shoutout to Serendipity Labs and everyone who showed up, got a little playful with clay, and let themselves be in the room. that’s the whole thing. 🙏 📸 @michaelward.photography CM OC is monthly and we’re only just getting started. next event is April 24th soon — link in bio to RSVP ahead of time.

This month, we’re honored to welcome Dr. Jaime G. Raygoza a proud Gay Latino Career Coach, burnout recovery advocate, and certified laughter yoga leader to the CMOC stage. Dr. Jaime’s work is built around one core belief, in that you deserve to show up at work as your full, honest self. Through confidence building, stress management, and a judgment-free approach, he helps professionals break through the barriers standing between them and their dream careers. But his story goes deeper than credentials. After years of piling on stress and pressure, Dr. Jaime experienced debilitating anxiety attacks and then a near-fatal car accident that became his defining wake-up call. That moment didn’t extinguish him. It became his ember. Now he channels that lived experience into helping others break the cycle of overworking, reclaim their well-being, and rediscover the quiet fire within. Come ready to laugh, breathe, and maybe even reignite something you thought had gone cold. Free breakfast. Free event. Good people. 📅 April, 24th (8:30am – 10:00am) 📍 Serendipity Labs, Costa Mesa 🎟 FREE — RSVP via link in bio 🅿️ Parking Validation is provided

Our theme for April is EMBER. It was chosen by our Poulsbo chapter in Washington and illustrated by Sarah Gordon. The literal meaning of ember is a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire. But as a metaphor, it means so much more. Our Poulsbo chapter had this to say about the significance of this month's theme: “Embers represent the quiet, enduring remnants of fire—what remains after the intensity fades. They carry a smoldering potential, a subtle strength that holds heat long after the flames have gone. As a quieter community outside the city, we may not always burn the brightest, but we never burn out. Our spark lives in reflection, resilience, and the space we have to pause, think, and grow. In those calm moments, we find what many others miss: the steady glow of ideas, relationships, and dreams that don’t need noise to thrive. Embers remind us that even after challenges or change, something powerful remains—ready to reignite when needed. We hold that same quiet fire within ourselves, and in community with each other, we kindle more. Together, we tend the quiet fire—fueling one another through presence, care, and shared warmth.” Watch this video from our Poulsbo chapter for more on what ember means to them. What ember is quietly glowing inside you? And what new fire will it ignite in your life?

“Play is the highest form of research.” Einstein knew it and Carl Jung built a whole theory around it. And next Friday, Terrill Thomas is bringing it to life. Terrill’s creative philosophy centers on this one word of PLAY. 🅿️ Play — be curious again. Do things for fun. 🅻 Look — out, up, in, around, back. Stay observant. 🅰️ Air — expose yourself to fresh environments, physically and creatively. 🆈 You. — always give yourself permission to be yourself. This is your reminder that creativity isn’t a grind. It starts with giving yourself permission to PLAY Free breakfast. Free event. Good people. 📅 Friday, March 27 · 8:30 AM 📍 Serendipity Labs, Costa Mesa Link in bio to RSVP. See you there. 🧡