There’s a recurring event on my calendar, set to come up once every 4 weeks. I don’t always follow through on making it happen, but I always feel better mentally and emotionally when I do. That event is called “Clean & condition leather boots.”
The reasons for my prioritizing this act are threefold. One is practical: my last pair of black leather Frye harness boots died a sad death after 6 years of regular wear, because (among other reasons) I had not been caring for them well enough or often enough, and the dried-out leather near the soles had started to pull away from the rubber in an act of quiet protest. I loved those boots so much that I cried tears of sadness when a cobbler made the pronouncement of death, and then cried tears of happiness when my partner bought me a replacement pair as a Valentine’s Day gift. I vowed not to let the boots down this time.