Go on a Curiosity Walk

A way to start your year with questions (Letter 295)

Hello fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from Petoskey in northern Michigan

Happy New Year!

I started 2026 the way I seem to start most important things in my life: with a walk.

Slow steps through knee-deep snow-covered woods, calves sore from dancing in heels the night before. That delicious blank-slate feeling hovering in the air with the sense that something new and magical could begin.

At one point, I laid down in pristine snow. My body cooled and became numb. Snowflakes landed on my face and dissolved as quickly as they arrived. My toes felt like tiny icicles, unsure how to move. I made a snow angel. The first one I can remember making in years. It was so fun to feel like ten-year-old Jen again. And she felt…angelic.

I felt deeply grateful: for trees, for snowfall, for nature, for spaciousness to think about life and for not being hungover for the fourth year in a row.

Grateful for being alive.

As I warmed back up while walking, my heiney began to feel sensations tingling back to life, I thought about the night before at the vodka distillery. I watched people try to forget their feelings for a few hours, to feel lighter, to play in adult ways. And there I was: cold toes, numbing skin, iced frozen wisps of hair in my face, completely present. Alive to sensation rather than numbed by it.

It made me think about how I want to move through this year.

Before we dive into the rest of today’s letter, I want to share an invitation.

I will be hosting a 2026 Intention Letter Ritual next Tuesday. I’m hosting a space for a gentle pause to intentionally reflect on where you are and for guidance to step into 2026 with clarity through a letter to your future self.

Now, let’s dive into letter 295 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

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❓Question to think about

What is a Curiosity Walk?

🖊️Writing

I didn’t start 2026 with answers.

I started it with ten deep breaths, snow under my boots, and a very slow walk. Slower than felt comfortable, slower than felt productive, slower than my mind wanted.

Before I moved my feet, I put one hand on my heart and one on my belly and counted ten breaths. Then I slowed my stride until it felt almost awkward. No destination. No rush. I opened a voice memo and let questions spill out.

Not polished questions. Not impressive questions. Just honest ones.

This is the practice I want to invite you into.

I’m calling it a Curiosity Walk.

Why a Curiosity Walk?

Because the questions we ask quietly shape the lives we live.

Not the answers we announced on January 1. Not the goals we feel pressured to commit to. But the questions we keep returning to, especially the ones that feel alive instead of stale.

Questions create movement. They loosen assumptions. They open new paths instead of reinforcing old grooves.

And unlike answers, they leave room for change.

How to Do a Question Walk

You don’t need a forest. A neighborhood block will do.

Please bring a phone as a tape recorder, and I highly advise you to put your phone in airplane mode before leaving the house to maintain a state of inwardness rather than being rattled by the external world.

1. Begin with ten slow breaths. Hand on your heart. Hand on your belly. Let your nervous system arrive.

2. Notice your body. Where do you feel tight? Warm? Awake? Achy? Heavy? Tender? What are five sensations you notice?

3. Slow your walk. to an almost-uncomfortable pace. Slower than efficiency. Slower than habit. This signals to you body and system that you are not rushing. That there is no hurry.

4. Start a voice memo red button. Let questions come in batches. Count them on your fingers if it helps.

5. Transcribe them without answering. Let them stew. Just let them surface. Let them wander. Let them contradict each other. Put them in an Apple note or Google Doc and come back to them whenever you like to tinker, reorder them, or add more.

The Questions I Walked With on January 1

Here’s a glimpse into the questions that opened my year:

1. What kind of love do I want to give?

2. What kind of love do I want to receive?

3. How will logic and emotion balance in my decisions this year?

4. Who do I want in my life and who do I miss?

5. What does mature love look like for me right now?

6. What habits would actually feel nourishing?

7. What does adventure look like without big trips?

8. How can I be generous with the resources I have?

9. What does health mean to me in this body, as it is today?

10. How much money do I really need to feel safe and at ease?

11. What do I want to learn this year?

12. What do I still need to write?

13. What letters are still unwritten?

14. How do devotion, discipline, and discomfort want to show up in my life?

15. When I turn 30, how do I want to feel?

I reached fifty questions before I stopped and I could’ve kept going.

Not because I was lost, but because something felt open.

An Invitation

If you’re feeling unsure, restless, hopeful, tender, curious or all of the above consider this your invitation to take a Curiosity Walk of your own.

You don’t need clarity. You don’t need a plan. You don’t need to know where you’re going.

You just need a body, a handful of breaths, and the willingness to listen.

Let the questions be fresh. Let them move you. Let them lead, gently.

And finally I’d love to hear how it goes for you :-)

🎧Listening

Chariots of Fire by Vangelis

Found from watching the movie with my mom and dad last night

🌟Quotes to inspire

“It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. I assure you I’ve done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don’t matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: Pretty much any time I got the chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that’s where my solace comes from.”

— Computer science professor Randy Pausch, who shared this advice two months before his death with terminal pancreatic cancer

📸Photo of the Week

I am grateful for skiing again for the first time in two years, surviving the white outs on the “mountain”, and learning how to play euchre!

🙏Shoutouts

• to my brother, sister, matthew, christa, aunt lindy, uncle matt, mom, dad, paisley, polo, charlie, and tilly for making this past week so wholesome. I love waking up in the cottage of the snowed in cabin with you all. It’s cozy to be here and live this life full of family that love me. <3

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I am grateful you chose to fill part of your day here.

If something in this letter resonated, press the ❤️ , leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetJL@gmail.com. I love hearing from you.

Keep on learning 😁

Stay Curious,

Toodles :)

Jen

P.S. #1 - I’d love to reflect and write with you. Join my 2026 Intention Letter Ritual here.

P.S. #2 - Here’s what you missed. Last week I wrote about what I’m learning lately on the internet and in Amsterdam in My Season of Saying Yes

P.S. #3 - I wrote a book. Letters to My Life is my favorite way to share my writing with you (and it keeps your screen-time stats down). Grab your copy here.