I've had a small woodworking setup in the garage for about four years now. Nothing fancy, just a workbench, some hand tools, a decent table saw I saved up for. It's always been my thing. My way of switching off after work. My wife has never really paid much attention to it beyond occasionally complimenting whatever I finished and asking where I planned to put it.
Last Saturday morning she just appeared in the doorway in her old college sweatshirt and said "okay so what do I actually do in here." No buildup, no warning. I genuinely thought she needed something from a shelf.
I didn't really know where to start so I showed her how to read the grain on a piece of wood before cutting. She asked probably twelve questions in the first ten minutes. Good questions, not just polite ones. We ended up spending about three hours out there. I showed her how to use a hand plane, she made a small practice cut on a scrap piece and was unreasonably proud of it, which honestly made me unreasonably proud too.
At some point she said "I wanted to understand why you dissapear out here for hours and come back in a better mood." I didn't really have a response to that.
We've been together for almost ten years and she still finds new ways to make me feel like she actually sees me, not just lives with me. I don't think I tell her enough that I notice these things.
Anyway we're apparently building a small side table together now. Her idea. I've already started thinking about how to make it slightly harder than it needs to be so we have to spend more time on it.