Life This Week 17/2/2020: Self Care Stories.


Things I’ve done just for me or enjoyed ‘just because’ this week….

Laps at the pool.

A coffee after those laps.

Discovering the first tomato on the vine I’ve grown from those Woolworths Discovery Garden seeds.
Another coffee but this time I found it at a new cafe I discovered on a walk I took around the suburb when I was a little early for a meeting at school.
It’s been the week for little walks in between engagements.

It’s been a huge recharge being away from screens and devices for these pockets of time during the day.  Nature always gives me energy and finding the unexpected as I walk makes me smile, imagine and reminisce.

Many local councils are doing their bulk rubbish collections for households right now and it’s a visual feast on many front gardens!
Using my hands to create rather than scroll and tap is the newest addition to my self-care toolkit.
Knitting is tactile, it’s structured and it’s proven to be very soothing.  Keeping track of my stitches and looking out for errors are defined tasks for my mind and I am growing to enjoy, even prefer, these blocks of time I spend knitting over scrolling on my phone (which often leaves me wanting, wide awake or worried).
I’m currently trying to master the brioche stitch in this scarf I’m loom knitting.  Can’t wait to wear it this winter.
I know.  I know.  I hate Valentine’s Day but this year, I gave it a chance.  The day itself was one of those crazy Fridays at work which left me drained but throughout the day, I was given love in so many forms.  Kindness from people at work, warmth and gratitude from others, a big hug and a strawberry ‘heart’ from Master SSG, that intense and deep love from my family….  I despise the commercialized overtones that February 14th has taken on in our world but it is also a day that encourages me to see, appreciate and pass on the other kinds of love I see around me. 
To love is to care for both oneself and others.

It wasn’t entirely fancy, it definitely wasn’t romantic but our Valentine’s Day dinner was a celebration of all the kinds of love we’d been shown and had shown through the day.  The bubbles were also a just reward for surviving the day in general 🙂


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