January: The Art of Noticing

I’ve missed sharing stories with friends—both real and potential—on platforms like these. I sort of want to be taken back to the energy of the days when Livejournal/Blogger/Wordpress were the main places to tell your stories to. It felt safe to do that. Reading other people’s stories made me feel warm and fuzzy too.  Perhaps it is all these planets in Aquarius right now. Perhaps it is the overall energy of 2026, amplifying the energies of Leo and Aquarius—a longing for community and an intensification of authenticity. Perhaps as I age I am starting to put value again onto preserving memories—just like I did when I was in my teens to early twenties. When did I stop documenting less? (I know the answer.) I am on Substack, too…which is fun sometimes, but I guess I get lazy jumping from one portal to another. I suppose I will post it all here: my stories, my heart, my observations, my processes, my photographs, my drawings, my curiosities.

Let’s start with this: January 2026 seems to have defied the theory of relativity. The fullness of your life’s activities typically makes time feel quicker, shorter. Full, deep immersion in any activity, physical or otherwise, feels like stepping into a portal fast forwarding you to a near future. So how are we still inside January?

I spent the last days of 2025 playing as much tennis as I could. Then I began the year watching the fireworks with friends over wine and lots of food. The following days led me to doing multiple astrology readings interspaced with tattooing.

Then I went to Taipei with my family. Taipei is easily one of my most favorite Southeast Asian cities. I would actually live there if I could.

I love the textures of the city.

We stayed right in front of the beautiful Daan Park (the Daan area is my favorite place to stay in the city). When we visited, my son made a new friend in who we now call the Squirrel Master. I imagine he sits in the park daily, feeding these chunky squirrels. We were just watching him at first, then he called my son to join him and taught him his Squirrel ways. We went to the Taipei Underground mall after, which is very long and contains all the gachapon machines your kid might want to see. And vintage arcades too. I always try to go to this city when I can and this time it was challenging: thinking of places a 10 year old might enjoy. But I think my son went home from the trip happy. We did also go to the beautiful Taipei Zoo the day after, which really impressed by brother, too, who happens to be a veterinarian. The day after we went on an old train ride to Houtong Village, which is known as the Cat Village. It was really lovely. My son says he enjoyed that place the most. I really enjoyed seeing him draw on his sketchbook a lot this whole trip.

If you need more Taipei recommendations, I did a little video featuring some of my favorites last year.

Love and good vibes,

Wiji