Tiny thought: Self-care

I went for a run on the path this morning and towards the end of the run but before it was over, I stopped because I saw a family of tourists struggling to take a picture. I asked if they wanted me to take it for them. They said yes, so I did.

Who knows what they’ll do with that photo, if they’ll ever even look at it again but it felt good to ask if they needed my help. So good in fact that I ran around the path’s loop one more time than I meant to before ending my run. I don’t know if this is because stopping gave me a second wind, or if it was the no-strings-attached act of stupid-easy service but either way it made me think that maybe the problem with self-care is not actually the self-care part of it but the neglect or dismissal of one of its core features: to take the focus off yourself for a second.

Abie always used to say when I’d get in a funk, “Do something nice for someone else, it will make you feel better,” and if it didn’t work, or I didn’t listen, he’d suggest I go for a run to get out of my head.

That’s how I found the path.