• Check-In + Reflection  •

Happy Winter everyone! This time of year can be demanding with preparing for the holidays and New year. Its a time for celebrating and gathering. It’s also a time of short days, and long cold nights. I’ve been enjoying settling into my cozy spots at home in the evenings.

As we approach the new year, I have been reflecting back on the year 2025. It was a hard year for Asheville. So much grief and loss from the storm. Certainly a lot of recovery work. This town has come a long way over the past year. We still have a long way to go but things feel a lot different than they did a year ago. It has been a time of resilience and cooperation as we rebuild our Asheville home.

This year I celebrated a milestone of my own, 20 years of being a Chinese Medicine practitioner. Many of you have been my patients for much of those years. I truly can’t believe I’ve been at this that long. I am proud of the work we do at The Peoples Acupuncture of Asheville. I already knew, while I was in Chinese Medicine school in Portland, Oregon, that I wanted to open a Community Acupuncture clinic. I have said this before: the clinic is my dream come true.

I started off my Chinese medicine training as a young punk living in Portland, Oregon. This was 2001, the year after y2k. I was 23 and possibly the youngest in my class. I had no car and rode my bike 25 miles a day to get to and from school in the misting rain of the pacific Northwest. I felt different from the world around me and wanted to do something alternative that I could build into a career. I was unaware of how Chinese Medicine would change me and the course of my life. In school I deeply resonated with what I was learning. Inside me I felt pieces falling into place.

One of the main lessons I have learned in my 20 years of practice is how similar we all are. I no longer feel so different from the world around me. Quite the opposite. I feel very connected to you all and our community. I have learned that everyone has a story. Usually one that is quite interesting, often touching, and very relatable. This goes beyond politics and other lines of our differences. We all connect as humans suffering from anxiety, struggling to sleep, backs aching, managing aging parents or sick kids. Yes, we have our differences, but no, we are not all that different.

Most of the things I’ve learned in my practice has been from you, my patients. You educate and inform me. I’ve learned how amazing you all are. You have taught me about your experiences going through knee replacements, shoulder surgeries, births, deaths and everything in between. I am grateful for all the things you continue to teach me.

I have also learned a lot about being a local business owner. I feel I can say, I winged it for the first 10 years and then the last 6 has been about fighting for survival through the pandemic and a natural disaster. None of it has been easy but it has taught me a lot. I look around now at the clinic with its healthy plants, neatly organized systems and tremendous staff, and realize this is yet another dream come true. Even after all the struggles of the past 6 years, the clinic stands stronger now more than ever.

I could not have done this without you or my amazing staff. I know in the next 20 years I will continue to learn and be amazed by you all. Life will bring many things, some of it beautiful and some of it painful. We remain connected striving to care for ourselves and others through this amazing journey of life.

Happy Holidays and New Year to everyone from myself and the entire staff at the Peoples Acupuncture of Asheville.

With love,

Aimee