2025 was an incredibly long, difficult year. (I know that’s comparable to telling you the sky is blue.) We all felt it in one way or another.

I clearly remember the moments of beauty and joy, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say they were overshadowed by disappointment, frustration, and grief.

The ideas that hit a dead end.

The connections that fizzled.

The luck that never appeared.

The awful news headlines that were constantly breaking.

The significant amount of tragedy and loss.

Looking back on 2025 feels like reopening a wound, but I had a gentle nagging that there’s a little something left to learn.

A quick detour for context:

In early 2022, I learned about morning pages from the book The Artist’s Way. The practice is to put pen to paper every morning and write whatever comes to mind until you fill three pages. It doesn’t need to make sense or be full sentences, yet I still struggled with it. Some days I wanted to keep writing after filling three pages; others I could barely fill one. Though I saw its value, the rules felt limiting.

I decided to switch from a lined notebook to a mixed media sketchbook. I drew squiggly lines with markers, then wrote phrases, thoughts, and ideas on and around them. This little change helped me to maintain the practice almost daily through 2022 and 2023. In 2024, as the needs of my dog Bea increased in her final year of life, I dropped to a few entries each month. I’ve kept going with the sporadic monthly entries throughout 2025.

Rather than reflecting on my 2025 journal alone, I decided to go back through all of the journals for comparison.

I’ve always been somewhat hard on myself, but this year I never let up. Nearly everything in my 2025 journal was about work—ideas for projects, thoughts about next steps, inner monologue about how my work does or doesn’t measure up.

Looking back, there was very little rest. For all the traveling I did, none of it could be considered vacation. On every trip, I intended to learn something, make a connection, or both. The exception was a dog/housesitting trip, and even then, in between playing with the dogs I worked on applications and designed a projection. The trips were fun, but not restful. My brain never turned off.

I kept pushing myself throughout December when I got an idea to project onto my kitchen cabinets. They’re the only flat surface in my apartment (my walls are all textured) and I can set up my projector in a spot where it doesn’t need to be moved.

I started with cabin windows and a snowy scene. (Click on the video below)

I switched it up a bit for the winter solstice. I’ve wanted to create something with a clip of “In The Arms of This Low” by The Swell Season for awhile, but you can only add specific sections of copyrighted music to reels on Instagram. So far the song playing on my laptop in the background of the video has made it past TikTok moderation, but I know it would get pulled from YouTube so I won’t be sharing it there.

Click to view on TikTok

Click to view on Instagram

Click to view on Facebook

And finally, I elevated the snowy scene, making stained glass windows using Illustrator and Blender (3D software). (Click on the video below)

Going back through the journals showed me that what was left for me to learn this year is how to take an extended break. An actual vacation, not just a day off.

For the past 2 years, I’ve launched something in the first month. In January 2024, it was my newsletter subscription. In 2025, it was the Emotional Shift Project.

I’m going to start my 2026 with a 4 day break. No word of the year, no project launch, no noodling on what I’m going to work on next. I know it’s likely going to be harder than trying to teach myself complex software, but I’m up for the challenge!

Thank you so much for being here with me through this difficult year. Your time is valuable, and that you spend some of it to read my updates means quite a lot.

Until the next newsletter, be kind to yourself and have a restful New Year!

~Giesla

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