The Power of Chicken Soup

Hi all - this is my first post, but I've been lurking for quite some time and actually mustered up the courage to post today! I've always been pretty femme, but in the past year I've really buckled down on practicing some RPW principles in my life - being more put together in my appearance, being a "soft landing place" for my SO, and - the point of this post - embracing the nurturing, caretaking aspect of femininity.

My SO (29M) and I (25F) have been together for around 2.5 years, and we've lived together for about a year (I know it's an RPW no-no, but that's just my personal preference). This past week, he came down with a rather nasty cold. So I did what I generally do. I always have homemade stock in the freezer, so I whipped us up some chicken noodle soup for dinner using the Binging with Babish recipe, which is incredible. Usually if I cook, he cleans, and vice versa, but I told him to just go upstairs and rest while I cleaned up. I brought him herbal tea with honey, pillows, affection, all that. Now, I don't mind doing any of this at all. But what struck me most was his reaction.

Normally my SO is a fairly stoic man - verbal affection is NOT his love language. But this week he was nothing but complimentary, lots of "I love you"s, tons of appreciation, and something that just warmed my heart - "Thank you, you take such good care of me." Now, that just brought a giant smile to my face. I don't know, it makes me genuinely happy to make his life easier. He's generally uncomplaining, and he doesn't suffer excessively from "man flu" so to speak, and he also takes wonderful care of me when I am sick, so it goes both ways - but that statement made me just feel so darned warm and fuzzy and feminine. Thank you all for inspiring me to be a "soft landing place" and to take joy out of the feminine caretaker role. This mindset has helped me a lot!