Grab a cup of coffee or tea and join me out here on the porch. I’ve got something on my mind I want to share with you. 

 

 

One crisis after another kept popping up. I barely had one fire under control before another popped up. By Wednesday, I was ready to hide in my closet until the weekend. But I did my best to roll with the punches. 

Wednesday evening, another crisis popped up that meant I needed to drive several hours to help out my daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law. It’s a beautiful drive up to their place in upstate NY.

 

It includes driving through both the Moshannon State Forest as well as the Allegheny National Forest. 

I have a few spots along the way where I stop to enjoy the view. (Also known as “stop to wander through the woods looking for mushrooms.”) 

And so, with the mounting stress of the week, I decided to pull off to the side of the road and spend some time in the quiet of the forest. 

I stopped at a favorite spot in the beautiful Moshannon forest. It was pouring rain as the remnants of Ida followed me up north. But once I stepped into the forest, under the canopy of stately oaks, towering beech trees and eastern white pine, the rain seemed to lessen. 

The sodden forest seemed to swallow all sound, even the sounds of the passing cars only a few yards away. I was surrounded by a world of lush greens and velvety browns. And there were mushrooms everywhere. 
 

 

And that’s when I saw them – black trumpets. 

 

These delicate mushrooms are a personal favorite of mine. I started picking them, planning what I would do with them; maybe make them into ravioli or dry them for soups and stews. 

 

 

And it’s this thought that got me thinking about self-care and homesteading again. These two things have been on my mind quite a bit lately. 

This popular buzzword is everywhere. But what does “self-care” really mean? We’re constantly encouraged to practice self-care. There are entire magazine articles dedicated to things you can do for self-care. There are industries whose main products are all about self-care.

In a world where self-care often takes the guise of relaxing or buying things– a hot bubble bath or a special dinner out at a nice restaurant, for instance, could something as labor-intensive as homesteading or gardening be considered self-care? 
 

 

As I stood in the darkening woods, getting completely soaked, picking mushrooms that I knew would need to be cleaned and preserved quickly so I could enjoy them in the future, I was completely at peace. 

This is true self-care, I thought. 

I have made this little pit stop on the side of the road amid a tumultuous time to gather some of the bounty of the season, knowing I’ll be able to enjoy it in the future. And I’m doing it because I care about myself. 

When we spend hours in a hot steamy kitchen preserving food that we’ve painstakingly grown, this too is self-care. 
When we pick up an ax and split firewood to heat our homes this winter, that is an act of self-care.

When we choose a lifestyle that puts self-sufficiency above convenience, we do so because we genuinely care about ourselves, our family, and the world we live in. We choose to step out of a world that causes so much stress in the first place.
 

 

We choose a lifestyle that may be more labor-intensive and sometimes more unpredictable but ultimately leads to better sleep at night, a healthier diet and the peace that comes from self-sufficiency. 

So, take a moment, dear readers, to congratulate yourself on being ahead of the game with this whole self-care thing.