Taking a Shower

The old folk crouching by their peat fires will tell their disbelieving grandchildren of standing naked mid-winter under jet streams of hot clean water.  –Ian McEwan (1948-   ) British novelist

      That will happen, suggests McEwan as an aside in his brilliant novel, Saturday, when this civilization fails and the new dark ages will have begun. I heartily agree that it will be an experience worth telling and remembering. Indeed, I believe it is an experience worth telling and remembering right now.

     Taking a shower is one of those common occurrences which is, when you stop to consider it, an amazing one: standing naked in a safe, warm, and private enclosure, with a cascade of hot, clean water showering softly down upon you―bathing, refreshing, and cleansing. McEwan’s character continues to entrance the children gathered around the peat fire with tales of “lozenges of scented soaps and … viscous amber and vermillion liquids they rubbed into their hair to make it glossy and more voluminous than it really was, and … thick white towels as big as togas, waiting on warming racks.”

     In those future dark ages, the children listening around the peat fire will indeed be astonished but so, I suggest, ought we.

     The daily shower can become common, expected, unremarkable, and like so may of our daily rituals, rushed, un-noticed, and under-appreciated.

     Here is an invitation to awaken to the joys of showering with intention (the same for a bath, mutatis mutandis):

     ♦ As you stand in the cascading water, take a brief inventory on how you are feeling in general; consider what your day ahead holds for you, or perhaps remember the day just ending.

     ♦ Notice how the water feels physically flowing on your body.

     ♦ Feel appreciation for water―for safe, clean water easily accessible in your home, time to enjoy it, for cleanliness, and for …?

                                                                                           Daily shower: Daily joy