I know it’s too early in the year to be making predictions but for 2020’s word of the year I’m putting my money on “self-care.” The term seems to be running rampant in marketing and on blogs. I’ve seen it used in everything from candy ads to treatises on whole grains.

Although I lean more toward the Protestant work ethic end of the spectrum, after a particularly laborious work week, changing the kitty litter, doing the laundry and pruning a hedge, I decided to throw caution to the winds and give self-care a whirl this weekend.

Instead of relaxing with a bubble bath or a super-green smoothie, I picked up “One Long River of Song,” a posthumously published collection of writings by Brian Doyle.

For more than a quarter of a century, until dying of brain cancer in 2017, Doyle was the editor of Portland Monthly. He also wrote over two dozen books of fiction, nonfiction, essays and poetry.

In a unique combination of whimsy, wisdom celebration and a pinch of melancholy, Doyle’s writings focused on contemplating the marvelous in the everyday.

Everything seemed to interest him — basketball, bike rides, kissing, kids, elders, religion and politics. Hummingbirds and humming. Monks, minks and capital-M Mercy. The heart as a muscle. Typewriters.

Sometimes Doyle worried about things like divorce and gun violence but he never succumbed to despair.

Doyle savored the quotidian and relished the absurd. And he did it all with dazzling cascades of words. Only rarely did his ecstasy carry on perhaps longer than even the most patient reader could be expected to bear. Case in point: the 379-word opening sentence of a short essay on pants.

But that was the exception.

Now, because this review started out as an exercise in self-care, I hope you’ll indulge me as I share with you just one of the transcendent nuggets I’ve mined from this bountiful collection of writings.

When Doyle’s twin sons were about six, they were in the midst of a soccer game when play came to a sudden halt. It turns out the kids had discovered a praying mantis on the field, and they didn’t want to squish it. So a little girl cupped it in her hands and they formed a procession to escort it off of the field.

“I have seen many extraordinary moments in sports…” Doyle wrote, “But I don’t think I ever saw a more genuine moment than the praying mantis moment. All of it was there for us to see — teamwork, decisive collective action, a leader rising to the occasion, humor, generosity, respect… and the subtle virtue of being something you see only once in a lifetime.”

There are many more such pleasures in this book — both simple and profound. “One Long River of Song” truly is a balm.

‘One Long River of Song’ By Brian Doyle

Little, Brown and Company — 272 pp — $27