Choosing Slow, Seasonal Living: An Old-School Approach to 2026

January always arrives with noise. That sense of get up and go, make the plans, lose the weight, what's your New Year's resolution?? And unending lists of who to become, what needs fixing, and where can I improve.

This year, I’m shifting. Slowing down. Choosing something against the grain. This year I'm taking the blog old school.

Marble & Mud was initially created to help guide you in multiple areas of this chaotic life we're living and I've tried to stay consistent at it but I've failed miserably. I get this writer's block where I run through the same thoughts over and over again never believing them to be good enough to hit publish. This crippling thought "Do I even know enough to be able to speak on this topic?" It keeps me from writing more often than I'd like to admit.

So this year this space will not be here to show you how to “optimize” your life or turn plants into product or give you garden hacks or 10-step routines or perfect systems or formally teach you anything for that matter. (There are incredible garden and herbalist bloggers out there already doing this)

This blog will be a place for noticing, learning, and returning to what’s already alive and working, in the garden, in the seasons, in ourselves and most importantly in our real lives.

Like many others, I’ve tried to show up online in ways that didn’t quite fit with who I am. Chasing consistency, visibility, momentum and that always changing algorithm that never felt natural to me. Social media taught me how to be a puppet, how to perform and ultimately.... how to doomscroll. It offers very little in the ways of connection these days.. between that and everyone trying to monetize something. *No shade here though to my friends who follow that path - life is tough and incredibly expensive these days and we do what we do to get by.

I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of being force fed what I see online. I'm tired of doomscrolling, I'm tired of seeing curated posts meant to sell me something I don't actually need. I'm tired of consuming posts & information that doesn't even pertain to me. (Is social media slowly destroying itself ??)

My focus for 2026 will be true, unapologetic connection - to myself, my land and to whoever stumbles across this space looking for the same thing.

I’ve been studying herbalism and seasonal living for years now, quietly, often inconsistently and imperfectly, but consciously.

This blog will be more of a learning journal for me... a place where I document what I’m growing, studying, making, observing, and more often than not....what I'm struggling with.

Not as instructions. Not as expertise. Just lived experience, shared honestly.

You might find:

-notes from the garden as the year unfolds

-reflections on herbs I’m learning to work with

-seasonal rhythms I’m trying (and often failing) to keep

-questions I don’t have answers to yet (lots of these)

-moments of rest, retreat, and regeneration

I believe there is value in witnessing someone else’s slow process... not because it tells us what to do, but because it reminds us that we’re allowed to move at a more human pace. Something we've forgotten over the years when everytime we post on social media within seconds it's lost forever to the algorithm.... their algorithm.

If you’re here because you’re curious about plants, the seasons, or living a little closer to the land....Welcome!!

If you’re here because you’re tired, overwhelmed, or craving something quieter.... you’re especially welcome!!

This is far from a polished space. It’s a lived-in one. Where my thoughts are messier than my grammar and I have way too many tabs open in my brain at once, but I’m glad you found it.

Here's to 2026 and blogging the old school way. I think many of us are quietly craving this kind of space, even if we don’t yet have words for it.

~Krista