See ya, 2025

I started 2025 with a lot of optimism and ideas for what I wanted to accomplish. (Maybe too many ideas, but I don't usually mind that.) I had ambitious goals for my business, as well as side projects - including launching this blog as a place for writing about small business ownership, neurodivergence, Chinese/East Asian medicine, and how they intersect.

But, starting around March, my health started getting, let's say, bumpy. In April, I started having vision issues, and wasn't able to use screens nearly as often, which put the brakes on many of the online content plans I had, both for my business and this blog. In June, my ability to write at all, even on paper, was halted when the right side of my body went numb and it was physically difficult to write at all. For a few weeks in the summer, I spent a lot of time staring at a wall; I couldn't look at screens, but I couldn't do much else, either. As I recovered over the next couple months, all of the energy I had went to keeping my business afloat and finding adaptations that kept me going - as a business of one, it doesn't function if I am not there.

As I recovered and wound my way through our health care labyrinth seeking answers, I spent a lot of time thinking about what was important to me and where I want my focus and energy to go. Knowing my energy is so limited, I don't want to waste it on things that aren't important to me, and I can't continue to bleed myself dry on miscellaneous projects that don't give something back to me. Also, I don't have the energy right now to build multiple projects from scratch, no matter how interested I may be in them.

I've also realized that I absolutely have to have something, or somethings, outside work that I am interested in and am passionate about. While I am very lucky that I have a deep interest in my work, it also can't be my only interest; I need time to recharge, to have a break, and to not think about work.

So, I've decided to repurpose this site to focus on my hobbies. I like having a space to record things - as evidenced by all my journals! - and having a spot to share what I am working on is fun for me. Ironically, many of the hobbies are analog, slow, non-computer hobbies: stationary, journaling, reading, tea, fermenting, bird watching, and so on - so writing about them online doesn't necessarily make much sense.

Part of my inspiration for wanting to record about these hobbies came when I found The Analog Life Project, a project by artist Lori Roberts. She is writing throughout 2026 on her offline hobbies, creating community and sharing resources while diving deeper into those non-computer hobbies. I loved this idea, and am taking inspiration from that for this site. (Since I'm on Ghost, instead of Substack, I'm not sure how much community there will be - but that's fine with me!) The term "analog hobbies" does make me laugh a bit; I have always had many of hobbies that count as analog, but never thought of them on that light!

My goal is to record about projects and passions, share experiments, and give myself space to discover hobbies again. So, if you've somehow found this site, you can expect writing on slowing down and analog hobbies: tea, journaling, stationary, nature-based interests (birdwatching, herbs, plants), slow food (fermenting and other food projects), letter writing, reading, and more. I am planning on getting (back) into bookbinding in 2026, so that may show up too. You're welcome to join in! Share your writing with me, comment, email me - I'd love to see your interpretation of an analog year!

Take care,

Kate