Thrilled to share what makes me curious
and my not-surprising lifetime regret
This is a group effort so if you kindly smash that heart button you will be sending love to three hard working writers.
I’m not nosy.
Hey, stop laughing!
I AM deeply curious about other people – what moves them, how they cope with all the things, what makes them sad – you name it. So, when Sheila Moeschen invited me to participate in The Curious George Questionnaire, a project she collaborates on with Michael Maupin 🄾🄵 🅂🅃🄾🅁🅈🅂🄷🄴🄳, I was honored.
TCGQ is about exploration and inspiration from a variety of creatives. I’d love it if you’d check out my contribution which I’m sharing below.
Thank you Sheila and Michael.
Curious George Questionnaire: #23
Brighten up, lighten up with The Bright Life's Donna McArthur
She: Curiosity is what we’re all about here at CGQ HQ and that includes the world within as much as it does the one around us. Fortunately there is someone like Donna McArthur who is happy to be one of our inner-journey guides. Donna is the smart, kind, inquisitive soul behind The Bright Life, a newsletter chocked full of fantastic writing that encourages us to explore ways to live with what Donna calls “a fullness of all aspects of life.” Our pal George can’t resist the bright and shiny—especially when it comes to peeps.
MM: “Some days,” chiropractor and Substack writer Donna McArthur admitted to our George, “Team Awe” (more on that below) fails to show up and “you look over and there’s Team Wonder plugging away slow and steady.” It was then that George realized that’s most people’s experience on an average Monday morning. But as Donna further admits, curiosity about other people and their psychological tics has provided her plenty to mull over—and has served her well as she shares her life’s journey with all of us.
Donna McArthur Answers the Curious George Questionnaire!
To me, curiosity is:
Curiosity is the inner spark of being human. If we pay attention to the rustlings of our deeper self, and learn to follow our curiosity, I think we’ll be led to the truest sense of who we are. Our innate inquisitiveness holds greater gifts than the illusion of life purpose—which for many folks feels like a stressful, Instagram-mediated concept about manufacturing our best life. For me, following my curiosity takes courage to walk a path that holds meaning even if it doesn’t amount to anything tangible.
Describe a road not taken. Any regrets?
Can one have a regret if the road they DID choose has been fulfilling and met their expectations? Yes, because I’m human and want to have my cake and eat it too!
My career path as a chiropractor has been very rewarding yet there are parts of me that regret not going into the field of psychology. I am innately curious about being human and why we do some things and don’t do other things, what are the mechanisms behind our behaviors and how can we change them. However, I come from a line of hard-working, prairie pioneers who required physical evidence for their efforts. Had they given it any thought it’s likely they would have found psychology to be an intangible, woo-woo field that would never amount to anything. This imprint, coupled with the fact that there was no one within miles of us who had anything to do with the field of psychology, steered me far from an area that holds great interest for me.
Tell us how you fill your curiosity well
My curiosity well is filled by people, starting with myself and what I’m capable of. I also want to know about everyone else—what do they find important, do they accept risk and, if they do, what do they do with it, what do they lean on…so many questions for all the people.
Wonder or Awe? Why?
Team Wonder all the way with a firm, respectful head nod to Team Awe. Team Wonder dominates the field; it’s everywhere all the time. It’s easy to call for defense when things get spicy and is also necessary when we need to push forward. While Team Awe has certainly won its share of championships, they are less consistent. Some days they simply don’t show up at all and you look over and there’s Team Wonder plugging away slow and steady.
How would you spend your last day on earth?
I want my last day to be filled with warmth and love. I hope there is a sense of connection with the power that is greater than me that goes by many names. I wish to feel a sense of a life well lived and a legacy of love and wisdom left behind. It would hopefully include laughter and joy with my favorite people, coffee, great food, sun, and being in nature by a river.
My life philosophy is________
My life philosophy has been “in order to grow, move forward, and change, we need to occasionally live in the place between fear and excitement.” I’ve done this countless times in the past, like when I left the country to go to school, or when I became a mother, or quit drinking alcohol. However, moving into the last third of my life I sense myself shifting farther from this philosophy as I become more deeply wired for comfort. Either I need to step up differently or come up with a new philosophy. I’m working on figuring that all out.
Xoxo Donna
P.S. I’d love to know what you are curious about and if you have any regrets? Drop me a note in the comments or by email donnamcarthur@substack.com.
Here’s who is behind The Curious George Questionnaire, I recommend you check out their excellent newsletters.
About She: Sheila Moeschen is a humorist, writer, photographer, and salty New Englander. You can find her on Substack at Humor Saves!
About MM: Michael Maupin helms the StoryShed Substack (among other things) and is a recovering screenwriter, book and magazine editor, and lifelong diarist.
About George: George is a man of letters, leisure, and all things interesting. Named after the fabled monkey—eccentric or genius parentage, who knows?—he’s made it his mission to discover the most fascinating, unique, and curious people like YOU. Good work if you can get it. When he’s not busy inventing a new brand of cereal or trading government secrets, George can be found enjoying a hot bath and a cup of Earl Grey.
We loved having you sit down with George, Donna! Every guest to the questionnaire provides a window in worlds we almost never see, and it's a treat to learn something new no matter where we are in life.
So beautifully expressed, D. I love how you reframe curiosity as a guiding spark rather than something frivolous—it feels both freeing and deeply human. The way you contrast it with the pressure of ‘life purpose’ really resonated with me. There’s such quiet courage in choosing curiosity as a path, even when it doesn’t promise tangible rewards.