Care

Tiny acts of care are everywhere. A smile passed between strangers. A moment spent noticing the light through the leaves. A homemade meal shared with friends. A parent chasing their child around the park, smiles spread on their faces. 

But when the world we live in is overwhelmingly a world of disconnection, pain, and division, it makes sense to ask whether these acts of care-beautiful moments of delight, connection, and kindness that they are-really matter at all?

Brooke McAlary believes they matter. In fact, she believes they might be some of the most important actions we will ever take. 

Now, more than ever, we're burnt out, heartsick and overwhelmed by a world full of problems that seem too big to fix. The solution doesn't lie in caring less and switching off. Nor does it lie in caring more and throwing ourselves into further burnout. The radical solution is to learn how to care small. Tiny, even. 

Care: The radical art of taking time explores what it means to care in small, powerful ways-for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities-and reveals that caring doesn't need to cost us our wellbeing, happiness or connection to the world. That making simple changes to how we live-spending more time in nature, putting down our devices and connecting with each other face-to-face, finding awe and wonder in the world around us and remembering how to play-will have ripple effects that reach far beyond our own corner of the planet. 

With unwavering compassion and understanding, Brooke McAlary takes us on a journey to rediscover the small pleasures that create large ripples, reminding us that no one needs to shoulder the burden of doing it all by themselves-we only need to cast our eyes forward and start small, with care.

Hardcover. 272 pages. Adult non-fiction. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2021. Written by Brooke McAlary. 23.7cm x 15.9cm.

Brooke McAlary is passionate about slow living. She has experienced the transformative power of simplifying, paying attention and living a mindful, intentional life, and as the host and creator of the award-winning Slow Home Podcast (downloaded more than 2 million times) she encourages thousands of people every day to live a simpler, slower life.

But it wasn't always like that. Six years ago Brooke was completely overwhelmed. She had two young children, a husband who worked long hours, a business, a home filled to the brim with all the trappings of a 'successful life' and a severe case of post-natal depression.

Everything changed when she began decluttering. What began as an effort to remove some of the excess, slowly evolved into a complete transformation. Gone is the overwhelm, the clutter, the excess, the busy-ness, replaced by a simpler, more meaningful, more connected life.

Now she and her husband are self-employed and enjoy a life centred on the important things - which, it turns out, aren't really things at all.