Self-care is one of those funny words that suddenly enters your vocabulary when you move to Berkeley and start living at a seminary and hanging out with seminarians. People don't talk like this in Memphis!
I have a lot of trouble with self-care, something that has become painfully clear in the recent past. I sincerely say that many of my greatest sins are against myself -- denial of my own value, cruelty, and neglect. (Which is not to deny my sins against others.) Even as I'm writing this, I'm fighting off the notion that I'm giving into selfishness -- that I should be focusing on helping other people and not just on me. But the idea of self-care is prominent among seminarians because it really isn't possible to care for others unless you're first taking care of yourself.
Natalia Antonovna has a beautiful reflection on caring for one's self by means of a pomegranate. Mindfulness, time, and sensual pleasure as aspect of simply appreciating existence. One of my Lenten goals is to start forming good habits of self-care. Food is part of that. Beyond the health benefits of eating well, I do associate food with caring. I love to cook, but I really love to cook for people I care about. So putting effort into the food I fix for myself is a deeply embodied symbol of self-care.
amen, amen
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