Warm Days into the New Year
Peace is something hard to come by, especially last year. As the new year comes knocking, I'm greeting it with an open mind. Taking in all the memories I created last year, I think it’s about time I start a new chapter rather than rewriting sections of the previous one. A few things I'd note for this year: share peace and give the calmer waves of life a try. I’m still keeping to my core and never letting go of the wanderlust of my creative side, but this time around, I'm prioritizing rest and self-dates. The best days are when I greet my favourite friend, Pinterest, and take time to build a mood board for the upcoming week. For the ambitious goals I want to achieve and the strides I’ll take to find myself in the life I aspire to live.
One thing I decided to pick up is blogging! Something that I thought was impossible because writing has always intimidated me. After long nights of dreaming, I decided to give it a chance. I'm hopeful I'll have a good run.
Another thing I’ve started is my cafe series. Days when I bring friends to cafes to tackle the agonizing wall called procrastination. We’ll list goals or to-dos at a cafe and give ourselves a healthy amount of time to check them off one by one. Building a healthy relationship with productivity. We’ll reconvene at the end, discussing what we can improve on for next time and the things we’ve achieved. It's a way for me to actually face the scary, obscure one, named productivity, or, for short, ducky. After filming the first few episodes, I noticed some improvement, and I'm pleased to say I'm no longer glaring at my productivity. Bit by bit, I'm mending the relationship. Lucky me, this is the longest relationship I've had, funny enough.
For the following days, I spent my time in Calgary, my other home away from reality. Though it was not without purpose, I was there for one of the many markets I’ve attended this month. The workaholic decided to peek its beautiful head out of my lazy soul during my stay. I won't go into many details about the markets, but all you need to know is that it warms my heart to always meet people who support me and my chaotic art. No matter how many times I do this, I'll always hold a chunk of my heart for all of you. Thank you, and I hope you'll stick with me till the end.
After the market, I did my favourite activity… Eating. I decided that for this new year, I'll treat myself to a fancier meal than the usual Joileebee order. Therefore, we visited L'olivovo Cicchetti & Lounge, where we devoured their pasta. Although the plates were smaller than we thought, they filled me up; I can't explain how good it was. The fried polenta haunts my dreams every day. I'd drive down to Calgary once more, just for that alone. We did stay another night because I’m unsure how safe it would be to drive home with only a hazelnut latte as fuel.
Nothing much happened going forward, just me finding the comfiest corner to trap myself in as I read Beach Read by Emily Henry. Ending a long day with a comfort activity is the way I'd hope to end every day.
2025 opened doors for me, and I'm thankful for the experiences I faced during those times. I'm at a place where I'm ready to close those experiences and convert them to memory. I'm ready to move on to different and exciting new chapters in my life. 2026 is the year I dream of new things; it doesn't have to be significant or entirely life-changing, just peaceful. For as I have said before, peace is hard to come by, and I'll cherish it with everything I have. Cheers to the new year. I hope you find your peace, whether it's picking up cooking, starting a new hobby, or trapping yourself in a room with your TBR books to avoid human interaction. Peace comes in different forms; my hope for you is to shape your peace the way you want to live.
See you at the next one? Maybe get a Hazelnut latte…
