Time for my semi-regular end-of-year hibernation seclusion retreat thang!
Hey y’all, it’s KimBoo! I’m an author and a podcaster who is also a librarian, text technology historian, and former I.T. project manager. I write about a lot of interesting things, I hope you agree! Please consider supporting me (and my dog!) so I can keep throwing errata & etcetera into the Scriptorium!
As a self-employed author and introvert, my life appears to a lot of folk as an ongoing seclusion: rarely seen in the outdoors, never going where the party’s at, hiding in my room 24/7.
That’s wrong, of course, since I do actually go grocery shopping occasionally!
Truth be told, while I don’t get out for hours every day the way I did when I had a “normal” job at the local university, I do leave the house regularly to visit with friends, co-work with Gina, and attend book signings.
But more to the point, I’m almost always online or online-adjacent and nearly always (always) working. I sometimes forget to respond to personal texts for days, or simply don’t check in on a platform for weeks (sorry, LinkedIn friends!), but I check the news, check YouTube, check the author forums, and check Neko Atsume. I write, I edit, I freelance, I have a part-time job, I have plans.
The result is that my so-called “down time” usually consists of my executive functioning imploding and going bye-bye, at which point I just vegetate. It’s not the healthiest rest, just the most necessary.
So, a few years back, I started doing an end-of-year seclusion/retreat where I check out of the digital world, sign out of “work,” focus on meditation and yoga, try to eat healthfully, do some fun art stuff (zentangles! Coloring books!), and generally rest in the truest sense of the word. A retreat of mind, body, and soul focused on recuperation and re-centering myself.
I did not do that at the end of 2023, and I’ve felt it all year, honestly. I’ve decided that this year, it’s time once again to retreat.
It helps that the final week of the year is the doldrums of time, at least here in the U.S.A. Other than retail and hospitality, most businesses either close or go on skeleton crews for the week between Christmas and New Year. It’s a quiet time of life and perfect for a personal retreat, when outside expectations are low and the general mood is laid back.
From the evening of the 24th through the morning of the 31st, I plan to be holed up in my house with my dog, making good on the promise of rest and restoration. Computers will be off completely; social media apps uninstalled from my phone; and time will stand still. The only reason I’m not turning off my internet completely is so I can stream music and watch a few movies or shows.
Almost nothing I do will be about work in any sense of the word. I will probably work on the household (reorganizing the studio room, mainly), and there will be journaling and self-exploration and introspection, but no goals.
Planning for 2025 will happen, but the focus of that planning will be on what is healthy and achievable. Gina and I are meeting on the 26th for brunch and to mastermind our personal and writing focus for the year, but I think that’s a good time to do it, honestly—when I’ll have few other distractions, and I’ve had time to decompress from 2024 a little bit.
I’m privileged to be able to take this time without worrying about going homeless or hungry, and I don’t take it for granted. In fact, one of my big goals for 2025 is to find a way to “pay it forward,” because I am not sure how I would have survived this past year without the intense support of my friends and family, both emotionally and financially.
I want to be in a place in my life where I can pay that forward to others who need it. I hope my end-of-year retreat can help me get there.
Have a lovely holiday season, and I’ll see ya’ on the other side!
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