Bath Salts

I was visiting my cousin’s family in Texas when I remembered bath salts. In the bathroom by their guest room, the shower has a recessed shelf on the end farthest from the showerhead, a place to put shampoo, soap, or a little something decorative. The shelf held an assortment of colored bath salts in jars, arranged all nicely. As I stared at it while rinsing my hair, I kept thinking, Those are so pretty! So very pretty!

It turns out that I had forgotten about bath salts. Not forgotten to buy some or to set them out in my own apartment, but forgotten they even existed. This happens quite frequently, I’ve learned, when you go into the cave. (See http://beckymacd.blogspot.com/2011/09/spelunking.html.) Because you’re working so hard to block out all of the distractions, you end up blocking out the good stuff, too. A friend in architecture school – which sounds far more grueling than medical school – forgot about plants, that they exist and look really nice when people have them in pots around their houses.

As I showered, I resolved to pay more attention to the little things that bring me joy and revitalize my life. Of course I failed miserably for a few months. But then I asked Tay to get me a peppermint foot lotion for Christmas, a product I had eyed for years and alternately assumed I would lack the time to use and forgotten about. It now sits on the bedside table, moisturizes my skin and makes it smell pretty, and makes me happy whenever I look at it.

It’s a feel-good ending, until you consider that I have been on vacation for the past two weeks, sleeping in with no interruption from the alarm, reading ravenously, daydreaming about decorating a house or condo someday, and using peppermint foot cream to my heart’s content. The problem with realizing what you’ve been missing, and tasting some of it, is that you’re all too aware of what it is that you lose when you lose it again. Which I likely will when I resume my rotations. And I’m not looking forward to it.