Self-care is not only
what we smooth into skin
or sip from a warm cup
it is the quiet ritual
before the world asks anything of you.

A pen,
a page,
a few unguarded minutes
where your thoughts arrive unfiltered, sometimes spelt wrong in my case 
still soft from sleep.

It is here you meet yourself 
not the version shaped by emails,
or errands,
or expectation but the one still dreaming.

Write it down.
The fragments, the feelings,
the strange, flickering images
that don’t yet make sense.

This, too, is nourishment.

Because what we carry inside
needs tending just as much
as what we place upon our skin.

And in those small, sacred minutes
each morning,
you remember
you are allowed to move slowly,
to listen inward,
to begin your day
on your own terms.

-HM