Inspiring and uplifting read

BROOKE McAlary is the bestselling author of three nonfiction books: Destination Simple, Slow and Care.

Brooke is also a tree-hugger, mountain-lover, enthusiastic gardener and the creator of the #1 podcast, The Slow Home Podcast, where she talks to people about what it means to live slowly in a fast-paced world.

Halfway through 2020 Brooke burnt out. She got sick, depressed and struggled to get out of bed for months. It was only through working on her book that she realised she had burnt out because she cared too much about “big care” and too little about “small care”.

Diagnosed with post-natal depression and moving house were only part of her many problems.

In her book, Brooke talks about how we currently view “care” and how the concept has been changed and manipulated by marketers, influencers and for-profit corporations.

She lists nine core categories of care, explaining their purpose and providing examples of the types of small acts that anyone can do.

These were inspired by the overwhelming nature of “big care” including the Black Summer bushfires, Covid-19, BLM protests and the US election, not to mention our own struggles with the vaccination rollout, and inequality issues of gender and race.

The year 2020 was a time of enormous, overwhelming problems facing the world and they are continuing into 2021.

Brooke’s ability to now live the slow life and take time to care has seen huge changes in her own family – her young children have even created a “slow room” in their house, where they decided technology was not allowed.

Focusing on kindness to yourself and others, Brooke shares her very creative ideas for what we can do in the next minute, next half-hour or half a day, together with poems, physical and mental exercises, or the fine art of doing nothing, just sitting quietly.

We can all learn from her experience and wisdom and I for one, found her book an inspiring and uplifting read.

Brooke’s ability to now live the slow life and take time to care has seen huge changes in her own family.