My mother has always said a mani-pedi can save the world. She’s always been a really busy woman–busy with her children, busy with her marriage, busy with her work, busy with the million charitable organizations to which she tirelessly dedicates herself–but no matter what she has going on, she always takes the time to spoil herself with a mani-pedi, a massage, a facial, or an eyelash perm.

Growing up, my sister and I always laughed about the notion that a visit to the spa could change the world. It wasn’t until last year that I came to realize what those little beauty rituals signify. You see, it’s never just a massage, or a hair style, or a tan, or a mani-pedi–it’s a reason to clear your schedule, for anywhere from twenty minutes to a few hours, be by yourself and actively do something for no one but yourself.

For many years, I assumed my self would naturally absorb and become full (and satisfied) with the spare minutes between all the things I had to do. I was surprised to find, in the middle of a divorce and while struggling with severe work-related burnout, that this isn’t necessarily the case. Now, like my mother, I know to devote an hour every week to myself, whether I’m having something professionally done, or undertaking the task of spoiling myself at home.

This blog is a collection of these simple, tangible pleasures, which now, thanks to the web, I can share with you.

I hope you will share yours with me, too.

The art featured on the sidebar is mine. It’s a drawing of a woman I never met, whose image I created from the words of a man who loved her. He told me she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she was so self-possessed, that she was more beautiful than anyone he’d ever known. I like looking at those sketches. They remind me beauty has more to do with how we feel about ourselves than what we look like.

Whenever I post an image and it’s not my own, I will include where the image came from in the post, to give proper credit where credit is due.