For five years, our little shop had been tucked away on a quiet street. It wasn’t the busiest part of town, but we had customers who came back time and again. Still, there was always something missing—a spark that kept us wondering, “Are we doing the right thing?” Then, we closed the shop.

At first, the decision felt like a defeat. We boxed up the last of the stock, turned off the lights, and walked out into the world, uncertain of what came next. But in the months that followed, we found clarity in the quiet. It wasn’t that the shop had been a mistake—it was that we weren’t ready for it yet. We didn’t understand just how much it had meant to us until it was gone.