Friday Care Package
Putting care into everything we do!
Dear Substack Community: I am sitting down with a cup of hot tea, and I encourage you to grab a nice, cozy beverage to enjoy while you read this post. I chose tea, because I’m trying to support my immune system and health by drinking more tea during these wintery months.
Fridays are a time for me to sit down and think about care and then write about the subject. I’ve been thinking about what my question is this year and I think it’s about flourishing. Are we flourishing? How might we flourish?
Friday Care Package
The Latin root for care is “cura”, which means “care,” “concern,” “attention,” or “solicitude.” It is the basis for many English words related to care, such as:
• Curate: To take care of something, particularly in the context of organizing or managing.
• Cure: Originally meant to care for someone, especially in a medical or spiritual sense.
• Curious: Etymologically tied to having a care or concern for learning or inquiry.
• Curator: Someone who takes care of a collection, such as in a museum.
The idea of “cura” often combines a sense of responsibility and attentiveness, making it a rich root for exploring the concept of care in theological, philosophical, or practical contexts.
A prominent feminist ethicist working on an ethics of care is Carol Gilligan, whose groundbreaking work laid the foundation for the ethics of care as a feminist framework. In her influential book, In a Different Voice (1982), Gilligan challenged traditional moral development theories (like those of Lawrence Kohlberg) by highlighting how women’s moral reasoning often emphasizes relationships, interdependence, and care.
It is these three things: relationships, interdependence, and care that I wish to explore today in Friday’s Care Package.
Care is one of the things that we often disregard, but when we look at the web of relationships, consider interdependence, that is when care has an opening to emerge. I’d like to see us invest in the work of relating in interdependent ways, so that we are able to care for ourselves and each other.
One of the things I am trying to do is make caring for myself a priority this year in 2025. This is easier said than done! How might we support one another in caring for ourselves this year? How can we encourage one another and remind one another to hydrate and eat and rest? When we lean into the ecology of relations, we begin to chart pathways for care.
Care Plan
This weekend, consider meditating for a few minutes and caring for yourself, or if you are able, consider taking a walk or moving in some capacity. I know for years my therapist told me that walking was the best medicine! Even a former student said that walking is the secret to feeling better! So, this time last year, I started walking as often as I could. I walked so much that I set out to walk the Camino de Santiago this past summer with a group of pastors! It was the best thing I did for myself—to really care for myself and start moving.
When we begin investing in ourselves, we can change the world! When we change ourself, we change the world. What needs to shift or change? How might care impact what needs to shift or change? One night last week, I prayed before I went to sleep as is my nightly practice and I asked the Divine what habits I need to shift and what habits I need to embody. What changes do I need to make, in order to experience flourishing? I’d like for you to experience flouring, too!
If you are into journaling, perhaps ask yourself this question: ‘who am I and how do I know?’ This is a question I started asking myself after I learned that Thomas Aquinas asked: “Who is God and how do we know?” The answer to that question is that God is simple. When Thomas Aquinas says that God is simple, he means that God is not composed of parts or divisible in any way. This idea, often referred to as divine simplicity, is a key concept in Aquinas’s theology and metaphysics, rooted in his understanding of God’s perfection and unchanging nature. In this way, I see God or the Divine as the embodiment of becoming. God is found in the becoming nature of God.
Enjoy this weekend caring for yourself as I care for myself. When we put care into everything we do, we find pathways of flourishing.
May it be so!
Paz, —Roberto Che Espinoza.