It is shiveringly cold today, with an icy wind that goes right to your bones and sets you a-trembling.

In between dashes to the laundry line to hang up wet clothes (brrr!), I’ve been staying nice and warm inside, making cauliflower potato soup, doing dishes, and wood-burning the last few markings on my wooden clogs. I love them, and can’t help but grin as I clomp noisily across our wooden floors and try not to trip over myself stepping gingerly down our steps. They are astonishingly warm and comfortable, and I have a feeling these clogs and I are going to have a long and happy friendship.

This weekend I took time to chronicle recent observations in my healing. One of the most interesting discoveries I’ve made is that so many of the things I thought were “me” – workaholic, people-pleaser, insomniac – have fallen away. In their place is quietness of mind and comfy-ness of spirit. A natural rhythm is being restored and I find myself functioning in a healthy way as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It is a wonder to me, and I continue to be in awe of how our minds, bodies, spirits, are so interconnected. When one aspect is wobbly, all the others are affected, and when one finds healing, it spills over into all the other parts like a most beautiful infection.

Such discoveries give me courage to press on, to keep going for treatments, to keep meeting with my counselor, to keep touching base with my doctor to make sure we’re doing everything we can to promote healing.

One of those things for me is happiness through self-care. Bear has always been amazing at self-care. When he’s tired, he rests, when wants to build something, he builds it, when he wants to go somewhere, he goes. He’s so attuned to what he needs for fulfillment and happiness that it’s second nature for him to simply do it.

I, on the other hand, am still learning, but it’s a jolly fun learning process. This weekend was dedicated self-care time for me and Bear, and we made the most of it. Computers and phones off, delicious sleep ins, reading of books, watching of movies, chats over bowls of stew as rain bucketed down. He did leather work, I did word-burning, we shared popcorn and dark chocolate, took turns making cuppas, and treated ourselves to red wine, sourdough bread, and four different cheeses: English Red Leicester, Danish Havarti, Tasmanian Triple Creme Brie, and Italian Asiago flavored with chestnuts. Such good, nourishing things that allowed us to start this week rested, restored, and thoroughly inspired. We loved it.

Today it’s back to work, tackling all sorts of little household projects: laundry, dishes, and getting my medieval knives buffed up. Knives are one of my happy things. I do so love them, especially unusual ones like the Bedouin dagger Bear gave me (middle), the gorgeous horn knife (bottom) our friend Colin made, and the wonderful top one that our blacksmith friend, Master Scully, made from an old railroad spike.

Homemade dessert is another thing that always makes Bear and I happy. Today I made an Apricot Upside Down cake, and we dined quite happily on pieces still hot from the oven. The cake was just the thing for a frigidly cold afternoon.

Now I must brave the blustery winds once more and get the laundry in off the line and start folding.

What is something that makes you happy on a self-care day? xo