Emotionally Unpacking in the Woods

My Travelogue to Woodstock, New York✌🏻

Jun 06, 2025

All I wanted for my birthday was some rest and relaxation. But what I really needed was alone time—so I booked a cottage in the woods of the Catskill Mountains: seven days of sleeping in, not thinking about work or writing, and just following my whims.

This was my third time staying at this particular cottage. Somehow, it’s become my happy place. It was actually the first place I ever traveled to completely on my own, six months after the end of my marriage. So maybe it’s more like an emotional retreat. The place I go to reset. To just chill.

The tiny blue cottage is nestled among the trees, with a small creek running behind it. If the windows are open while you’re lying in bed, you can hear the rushing water. The wildlife is abundant, and this late spring visit was especially lively. I saw dozens of chipmunks and bunny rabbits, and even ran into a pair of baby foxes and, even, a teenage black bear in the front yard. Don’t worry, he seemed just as wary of me as I was of him.

I spent my days reading books and vintage shopping, bookstore-hopping my way through Hudson Valley towns like Kingston and Woodstock. One day, I hiked Sloan Gorge Preserve, a scenic mile-and-a-half trail through a gorge with dramatic rock formations, dense green trees, vernal pools, and remnants of an old 1800s stone quarry. It was much easier than the Overlook Mountain trail I attempted on a previous trip. That one was... humbling. A four-mile out-and-back hike with a steady incline that left this out-of-shape 36-year-old gasping, but it was worth it for the sweeping views and the mystical, crumbling mountain house ruins at the top.

If you couldn’t tell from almost every newsletter I’ve written in the past nine months, I’m in a transition phase. I feel like I’ve finally grieved the last era of my life—my marriage, and the image I had of what my future would look like. But I haven’t entered the next phase yet, and I don’t think I will for a little while. So I’m trying to be intentional. To not just jump into something for the sake of movement.

In that spirit, I read something in Leslie Stephens’ Morning Person newsletter that really stuck with me. She talked about doing a values card sort as a way to check in on what actually matters to you and whether your life reflects that. I tried it myself last weekend, and it helped me see where I’m aligned and where I’m not. It didn’t give me answers exactly, but it offered a little clarity—and right now, that feels like enough. (I also did a pretty intense tarot journaling session, for good measure.)